Queenieberry

Strawberry Festival has started and there will be a ton of pics appearing here.

Thanks to Queenie for making it all possible! These days, she is one of the key figures at Modern Sky, China’s leading independent record label. They are behind a range of music events including Strawberry, the largest and most stylish festival of them all.

Red Star

“Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead,”
said Lucille Ball.

This music student is not obsessed with fashion trends or such a prosaic notion as good taste.

This is the sort of image that started me on Stylites – in contrast to all the images from fashion parties that I think many of you must find as tiring as I do. I have always sought an element of the unexpected, crazy, or outlandish. People constantly ask me if Beijing style is authentic or original. Do Beijing people have their own voice? They ask me if it is improving or if I think people here are well-dressed. If they don’t have their own style, is Stylites not a waste of time?

Authentically Beijing?

This is the Beijing I love: welcoming, diverse, cutely bohemian, vibrant, international in its own quirky way, and, of course, smoking. Sure, you might say they are poseurs, but then, I am looking for poseurs. Maybe they are a bit pretentious – but people have been leveling the same accusation at me since I was fifteen – but I would say that they just like to keep their world a little magical. I am drinking ginger ale out of a champagne flute at the moment. Even those who constantly lose themselves in escapist fantasies need to stay sober once in a while.

These two young ladies aren’t haughty or cold, but really quite welcoming in a way. Are they authentic or are they just mimicking the way that hipstresses like them dress in other parts of the world?

Outside Jam Bar

The flea market at Jam Bar has become a regular monthly event that attracts a wide swath of local retro-hipsters. Is there a term that combines those two words?

Up till now, they have been almost entirely girls, but at the next one in May, I will have booth focusing on men’s neckwear, vintage YSL suits, etc. I will keep you updated.

BOF not on Trends

Business of Fashion offers a helpful list of the top 20 figures in Chinese fashion. In addition to a slew of business owners from Hong Kong, several key Mainland media figures like Hong Huang and Angelica Cheung make the list. Even blogger Hong Huang and stylish Lucia Liu are here. Including Melvin Chua also seems to make sense given the huge number of events that are his work.

It was a bit surprising not to see Su Mang, Assistant Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Bazaar, Bazaar Jewelry and other publications and Assistant Publisher for the whole Trends, the largest fashion publishing group in China. Given that the Trends Group is the main voice deciding how the mainstream population of China digests fashion, Liu Jiang, the Founder and President of the group might also have been included. I understand that BOF might have wanted a selection of figures from manufacturing, retail, media, design, and modeling; there might not have been enough room for Su Mang or Liu Jiang. Still, the list does seem a bit Hong Kong tilted.

Eco-Queen


Photo: Suzy Words: Colin

You can always trust in the eco-credentials of this pretty face. From Switzerland, Amihan Zemp is co-creator with Hans Martin Galliker of NEEMIC, a fashion project based in Hong Kong that works with young designers from all over the globe with three goals in mind: creating outstanding fashion, making the industry more environmentally sustainable, and building bridges between Europe and Asia. A member of agrachina. com, a network promoting organic agriculture in China, NEEMIC sources only quality, organic fabrics from local suppliers. NEEMIC collections infuse an industrial, urban feel into a product that attempts to be true to the buyer and the earth.