Maggie Mao is the adorable fashion editor for Chinese Grazia, which might be described as a fashion magazine for regular stylish women.  It focuses less on portraying the unattainable world of the runways and fashion aristocracy and more on fun, approachable, content.

The March issue of the Chinese edition of Grazia recently came off the press with some street style images shot by me

毛婕是《GRAZIA红秀》的资深时装编辑。三月份的杂志有我拍的四个街拍照片。毛婕是个很可爱的上海女孩。她以前在周末画报的Lifestyle工作了几年。

These hutongs are making her feel brand new.  And being somebody in the China City is almost as good as being somebody in the World City.  Sylvia is just in from Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, and is planning to live here permanently perhaps working in a magazine.

It’s certainly an eye-catching color for IT girl Wang Xiaolei.

王小蕾(27)是IT公司职员。关于自己的穿衣风格，她说 “必须 this 让我任何时候都浑身自在的休闲随性不盲从的boyish风格”。

These two girls in IT and design of some kind come from Nanjing, but are now working in Beijing.  Both had odd bags from elsewhere.

This one was purchased on a trip to London…

…and this one in Seoul.

Rustic is a big band at the moment.  They won the top title in the Global Battle of the Bands for China, just held in Hong Kong.

This is Ricky, the bassist.  He is from Shijiazhuang, Hebei.  Just before he took this photo, Ricky was pissing on the hutong wall.  He was on his way to getting a tattoo of his girlfriend’s face put on his back.  He describes her as “rich”.  He himself lives with four others in a flat in Tongzhou, where each roommate pays RMB 400.

This young lady from Jiangsu is studying shoe design.  This is her first trip to Beijing and she really enjoyed it, though she barely left the area around Gulou and Nanluoguxiang.  The rest of the city is rather revoltingly modern and homogeneous.

从江苏来的女孩在学鞋设计。这是她第一次来北京。她觉得很好-几乎没有离开南锣鼓巷和鼓楼那块。

I encountered Ritchie right outside the tents at Bryant Park.  Born in Xiamen, he now lives in LA and reports on fashion week for the Chinese website called M.Style.  He also has a studio in LA called Triple Major. One project he has worked on recently is called Project White Tshirt, which brought 31 designers from 13 countries together to transform the basic white t-shirt. This is now on exhibition tour and will land in Beijing this fall and be at UCCA.  The pieces will be auctioned to support Designers Against Aids.

Interestingly, Ritchie was profiled by the site Stylelikeu that just interviewed Jeffrey and me.  I interviewed Ritchie in Chinese:

在纽约时装周采访了Ritchie。他是创意机构Triple-Major的创办人，也在M世代杂志写专栏。他在厦门出生，香港长大，现在在洛杉矶居住。
Stylites: 这次纽约时装周你比较喜欢哪些设计师的作品？
Ritchie: 这次时装周我最欣赏Patrik Ervell和Thom Browne的作品。Patrik Ervell是因为他这季用的像雨衣一样的物料很特别，整个展览的音乐和场景也配合得很好。而Thom Browne则是因为他的剪裁和突出得整体效果。

S:从时尚和穿着来说美国和中国有什么区别？美国年轻人面对潮流，名牌等会跟中国年轻人有区别吗？
R: 两地本身的年轻人之间就有很大的区别，所以很难一概而论。但真的要比较的话，中国年轻人普遍对品牌的追求比较大，但有部分穿着挺大胆的。而在美国，服装的整体感觉比名牌重要，但除了纽约以外，其他城市的时装相对保守。

S: 你觉得哪些大陆的服装设计师在国外会最受欢迎？
R: 王一杨的茶缸吧。这个品牌的设计感很强，同时又有很浓厚的中国元素，所以在国外应该会很受欢迎。

S: 哪些中国现代文化作品（电影，音乐，等等）应该被国外的人-尤其是美国人-关注？
R: 我很欣赏山林概念这对创作组合。他们其中一件叫“触墨”的作品把汉字的偏旁部首改造成软垫，围巾等，非常创新，同时可以让外国人了解中国的文字结构。

S: 经常来北京吗？你对这个城市的潮流，穿着，等等有什么影响？你最喜欢北京哪些商店，餐厅，酒吧等等？
R: 不常来，但我很喜欢张旺胡同床吧的感觉，另外鼓楼东一些像RAW一样的小店也是很有特色的。

S: 你以后想长期住在美国，香港还是中国大陆？为什么？
R: 香港和美国我都住过一阵子，所以在不久的将来我应该会来北京居住和工作几年。现在中国的时装正刚起步，时装的发展会相当有趣，所以想体验一下和成为当中的一部分。

She had several lackeys photographing her on Nanluoguxiang.  I joined in.  She is a makeup artist.

Here at Bryant Park is Clement, a stylist based in Shanghai and originally from Anhui. He and his partner founded the Clement & Chen Studio in 2007. He is covering New York fashion week for Chinese Madame Figaro. His Studio is involved in fashion shoots, artistic direction, etc. and they work with a range of Chinese publications.

This is the least fun and most commercial of fashion weeks, according to Clement.

Duan Yanling is Editor-in-Chief of design magazine Case da Abitare and Atcasa.cn, an online design channel in collaboration with sina.com. She was also hosted CCTV 9 (English) program Travelogue.  She graduated from Stockholm University and completed advanced study at Pace University in NYC.

Yanling believes that taste comes from one’s knowledge and cultivation. On Chinese people’s taste in fashion, she feels that many traditions in style and beauty are long lost. At present, most people are still trying to copy stereotype fashion elements of other culture/countries. She thinks that it will take some more time for Chinese people to find their own unique style. For shopping, she hopes to see a local design concept store something like Paris’ Colette or perhaps this new shop in Antwerp called ra.

段妍玲是《居Case da Abitare》和新浪ATCASA设计频道主编，旅游卫视全球创意发现节目《创意生活》的设计行策划、撰稿兼主持，原CCTV9《旅游指南》英语节目主持人。她毕业于斯德哥尔摩大学，后在纽约佩斯大学深造国际广告研究生课程。

妍玲认为品味来自知识与修养。对于当前中国人在时装方面的品味，她觉得中国传统美学系统在现实中已经完全失传了。在中国，很多人还只是模仿外来时尚风格的一些流行元素，要找到自己的独特风格尚需一些时间。在购物方面，她期待一个有生活味而又有品质感的设计时尚概念店的出现。

I have a whole set of rules that make it easier for me to know what not to photograph.  Most people can be crossed-off without further thought because they have committed some kind of unpardonable offense.  Beyond the obvious sins like large logos and monogram handbags, Ugg boots – generally fake in Beijing – and puffy coats generally guarantee exclusion from these rarefied parts.  Still, these two students from the Northeast had cuteness, which tends to get you somewhere in life.

I wonder how many red-haired artists China has.  Maybe it is more common than I think. At the very least, there is a writer, also from Taiwan, who had red hair.  Victoria (Yung-Chih) Lu was born in Taipei and studied painting at age six.  At nine, she enrolled in night classes at University and was described by newspapers as the “youngest college student”.  At 19, she went to study in Belgium and in ‘73 she went to the United States where she became involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement.  Concurrently, she moved away from traditional painting and became a more radical figure in the art world.  This month, she had a show at the Today Art Museum in Beijing.

中国有几个著名艺术家把自己头发染成比较亮的颜色？可能不少。当代著名的”动漫美学策展人”陆蓉之在中国台湾出生但带的时间在美国很长。她从6岁开始学绘画；9岁进大学夜间部修课，被报纸称作当时年纪最小的大学生；19岁到比利时皇家学院深造。1973年到了美国，参与了女权主义运动，同时她一下子抛掉已经学习了17年的传统绘画，成为观念艺术的急先锋。一月份在北京今日美术馆有她动漫展叫”生化–虚实之间”。

These two, from Xinjiang, are students at the Central Academy of Drama.  They also play in rock bands in old country.  The ideal, these two say, is to be in movies abroad.  Apparently there are about ten or so Uighurs studying at the school.

Photographed at Lan Club, Beijinger Liz does PR in a multi-brand luxury retailer.  She prefers to mix and match rather than wear only items from upscale labels.

Milk@Coffee lead singer Kiki, last mentioned here for designing a dress, is very accomplished.  She has come out with several albums and now even a book about herself.  Her style of music is rather cheerful and poppy, but seems to deal with the subjects of loneliness and being by herself – one of her biggest hits is called “Accustomed to Loneliness”.  Something about her that doesn’t meet the eye must be repelling everyone.

牛奶咖啡组合的主唱 KiKi(富妍) 是个活泼漂亮，多才多艺，自信而且有品位的女孩。她不仅出过好几张专辑，而且最近还出了一本关于自己的书。我想问她为什么她的第二张专辑要叫《越长大，越孤单》，还有她最流行的一个作品要叫《习惯了寂寞》。是不是所有的中国pop都必须有这样浪漫的名字？

Taiwanese artist Lai Tsun Tsun just participated in a show at Beijing’s Today Art Museum. She is standing in front of one her pieces.

台湾艺术家赖纯纯，身后是她的作品。 那天是今日美术馆的展览开幕。

Photo: 米玉明

My parents rarely allowed television in the home.  I didn’t become accustomed to its presence, so I am rarely bothered that the set in my Beijing hutong home gets no signal. An unfortunate result, however, is that I have not seen Cao Difei hosting on Beijing Television (BTV). I had run into him several times without realizing that he was a bit famous.  Cao Difei grew up in a hutong in Beijing and has been at BTV since 2001.  More on him later.

Artist Andy Mo works in a Spanish art gallery but is something of an Anglophile (check his website).  Painting since he was a young boy, he graduated from Hangzhou’s China Academy of Art in 2007.  He has now been in Beijing for two years and now works in a 798 gallery called Iberia Center for Contemporary Art.  A major hobby for Andy is horseback riding, which he does regularly outside of Beijing.  His favorite types of horses are the Spanish “warm-blood horse” and pure breeds from England. Though he hasn’t made it to London, but he really likes the spirit and style of the English capital, though unlike many Beijingers it is not because of punk or rock music.

很少见到我真的很想模仿的穿法。他的风格低调但是很特别，时尚且经典，在传统的基础上又加入了很多他个人的想法。他叫吴建安,小名“竹子”英文名叫Andy Mo（他的个人网站）。2007年毕业于杭州中国美术学院。从小开始学绘画。现在主要是以木炭在纸本上创作。来北京2年多了,现工作于798一家来自西班牙艺术机构”伊比利亚当代艺术中心”。 业余时间经常去骑马，是个恋马狂!他喜欢西班牙的温血马和英国纯血。他没有去过伦敦，但喜欢这个城市的气质。不同与这个时代大部分的年轻人，他不喜欢摇滚或者朋克，喜欢安静和让人沉思的音乐。他喜欢TOP GEAR(由BBC制作的世界顶级汽车节目). 他也喜欢逛stylites.net和www.lastnightsparty.com等时尚网站。

Andy got this leather bag from a friend by trading for a painting. 这个皮包是拿画和朋友交换的.

He attended an event called “I love arts London” but later removed the word “arts” from the pin.  参加一个伦敦艺术学院的年对派对他们印的是” I LOVE ARTS LONDON” 然后他把ARTS刮掉了.

Thanks to Andy for helping edit my Chinese.

Recently, Men’s Bazaar presented its awards for the most tasteful/successful men (《芭莎男士》主办的中国品位成功年度人物颁奖盛典) at the National Stadium.  It was a great chance to see the water cube and bird’s nest again.  They were quite lit up.

The event boasted a huge array of billionaires and celebrities like otherworldly Ali Baba Founder Ma Yun (马云), Yintai Investment CEO Shen Guojun (沈国军), actor Sun Honglei (孙红雷), billionaire entrepreneur and software engineer Shi Yuzhu (史玉柱) – a fellow that looks like he controls several gangs of Jersey-based crooks -  and countless others.

This young designer from London, here for a few months, was one of the guests.  Sorry for the time lag in my posts.  My time has been surprisingly limited recently.

Vega Zaishi Wang is a designer now based in Beijing’s Jianwai SOHO. Born in Liaoning, she studied in London for several years and operated a studio in Xiamen. Learn more about her and view her collections at her website.  Her brand is called Sforzando.

Vega的工作室在北京的建外SOHO. 她在伦敦学过时尚设计. 可以看她的设计在这里. 她的服装品牌叫Sforzando。