Duval Leroy in Shanghai

Come to Pawnstar for Duval Leroy champagne to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  The Year of the Cock is upon us. Yes, we realize that you are probably not actually in town but some people are and for them this could be quite fun.  It says in the above flier that you need to bring a group but I think we can probably bend the rules if you spend 3000 yourself. In any case, we hope to see you for a few flutes of Duval Leroy champagne at the Clement Apartments.

Upcycling from Pawnstar

China’s leading secondhand and consignment shop, Shanghai-based Pawnstar, focused mostly on contemporary fashion, but upcycling is one of the more unique things that this platform offers. Locally-based independent designer Shen Tian, whose English name is Nisa, works exclusively for Pawnstar on upcycling, often right on the second floor of the Clement Apartments.

This post contains some images of some of recent items created by Nisa. All of these items are completely one-of-a-kind. Above is a fascinator made from a combination of a necktie and other items.

These are earrings using feathers.

Stylites in Elitesem

An interview with me focusing on Stylites at elitesem.com as part of their expert interview series. Elitesem is a marketing company with HR practices that seem very attractive, including flex-time and salary transparency. This article from entrepreneur.com has some interesting elite SEM This company is ranked No. 1 in our large-company category on our Top Company Cultures list.

This focuses mostly on Stylites as a Chinese street fashion blog and my endeavors as a consultant and doesn’t really touch on my latest ventures related to shopping in Shanghai and eco fashion.

Pawnstar: Shanghai Vintage and Secondhand Shop

The top Shanghai vintage and secondhand shop, Pawnstar, just came out with some new fliers:

Pawnstar Shanghai French Concession Vintage Shop Consignment Shop

Our message to Chinese customers is that people have way too much stuff, so there is no reason to buy something brand new especially when you consider the environmental impact of the fashion industry. Instead of paying retail every time or just wearing something that is overly recognizable since it is from the latest season, women (and men) should consider shopping on consignment. At the moment, we are more-or-less the major option that is available as the Shanghai vintage and secondhand store par excellence.

We want people to give up that urge – that pressure – to always be seen in the latest trend and start incorporating vintage accessories with designer pieces that may be a season or two old. Hey, for people who really will only wear the latest trend and wear it just once, please just bring those items to us!

On Yanie Durocher

Shanghai fashion blogger Yanie Durocher appears in Marie Claire Italia wearing an item purchased at Pawnstar

Above, Fashion Blogger Yanie Durocher wears an item she found at Pawnstar’s shop in the Clement Apartments, the heart of Shanghai’s French Concession.

The ever-style Yanie Durocher’s shoot and interview with Marie Claire Italia (in Italian) that happened on her last trip to Milan. See the companion piece on her blog, The Marginalist, here, Yanie as Fashionista in the Shanghai edition of City Weekend, an interview on That’s Shanghai, her PR Agency, and here is the piece that she wrote on fashionstatement.asia.

Pawnstar QR Code

Shanghai Shopping French Concession Vintage Secondhand Pawnstar
Scan this Wechat QR Code to add the Pawnstar customer service account, which also provides access to our full product range – from vintage to secondhand designer labels to unique up-cycled items.

Pawnstar, a really unique Shanghai shopping experience, can be enjoyed well beyond our shop in the French Concession!

 

Pawnstar’s Chinese Name

The name Pawnstar is quite well-known around Shanghai at this point, so we may be stuck with it. I find it rather cute and I don’t think it’s seediness is problematic. What concerns me much more is that there is a famous show from the US with the same name. This obviously is detrimental when it comes to google search results. Most of you probably don’t know our Chinese name.

The Chinese name for Pawnstar is quite clever. The person who came up with it, Mr. Li Xuesong, is an extremely successful entrepreneur based in Beijing. He founded Flamingo, a conglomerate in the realm of real estate marketing or thereabouts. Dangpu (荡铺) is a homonym for the word that means Pawnshop (当铺). Pu just means storefront, but Dang (荡) is a tough word to translate. Probably the easiest way of thinking of it is as “swing”, I’m told. We created the concept of 荡铺 by combined Dang (荡) with the word for store and the result is a concept something along the lines of an adult store but it sounds like the word for Pawnshop. You see, a bit like Pornstar and Pawnstar.

As I’m sure anyone who has dealt with China and its language will know, homonyms are omnipresent. Our end-of-year user’s choice competition used one of the two characters as its name. We proclaimed 2017 the Year of the Chick, in anticipation of the Chinese New Year. Ji (姬) , an archaic word for concubine or high-end, and inevitably very talented, courtesan, is a homonym for Ji (鸡) or chicken or rooster.

Happy New Year’s from Pawnstar

Here is a Happy New Year message from the founder of Pawnstar:

Dear Friends,

People will remember 2016 – mostly because it was so bizarre. For Pawnstar, it was also a memorable year. Our founding was in 2015, but 2016 saw us become an entity that is a bit more substantial. Most of our customers and consigners came to us over the last year, we brought together a wonderful team of staff, we joined with young designers to create an exciting upcycling program, and we opened a physical location in the Clement Apartments in Shanghai’s Former French Concession that was just named TimeOut’s New Shop of the Year. We also laid the groundwork for exciting partnerships that we hope will make 2017 the year in which Pawnstar and the concept of secondhand fashion in China start to go bigger.