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.

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。

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.

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.

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。

As mentioned, Li Xiaoyan won the gold prize for the best spring/summer collection at China Fashion Week 2009.  She gave me the scarf after the photo, which was taken in her studio.  Born in Taipei, Miss Li arrived on the Mainland in 1994.  She has designed for a whole range of labels before her current one, Fangfang, and the focus is on 100% cotton and natural colors.

拍完照，2009时装周最佳设计师李小燕小姐把她在图片里戴的围巾很大方地送了我让我永远记住她这次时装周的装秀。她在台北出生长大的，1992毕业于台北暨南大学文学院，1994到了广东。她已经做过几个凭牌的设计总监包括”芳莹”、”法碟”、”如意坊”、”Marvel”、”伴尼”和现在的“芳芳”。李小姐特爱纯棉，今年也继续了这个主题。所有的衣服是浅米色。她的设计也反映她对环保和健康的态度。她也是个天天汽自行车的人。

Sorry for the lag time that sometimes occurs between the photos being taken and their appearing here.  Photos taken for my column in Modern Weekly must first appear in print.

Marie-Alice Legarda has been working as a stylist in Beijing for three years, but she doesn’t feel that there is a huge amount of style here though people are clearly into fashion.  Perhaps she has spent too much time in the City of Light, and every other place seems dim in comparison.  As a shopping expert, she recommends that people who travel abroad do their shopping there.  I would agree, with the exception of tailoring, since there is such a huge mark-up on quality products here.  When it comes to restaurants and bars, Beijing is more blessed, in her opinion.  Among her favorites are Maison Boulud, Hatsune, Flames at the Hilton Wangfujing.  She also recommends Tea Time at the Ritz Carlton Central Place.

Here is Keeven, a fashion designer from Shanghai.  His work has shown at fashion week there.  He is with the group Fashion Design Organization.  Sorry, still putting up pictures from China Fashion Week.  After spending so much time seeing shows, my work has become rather backed up and I haven’t had a chance to go out shooting.

Armor for a modern urban knight?  He designed it himself as he did all of his other garments.

The press pass that had gained me entrance to 20 shows over the course of a week was in the name of the fashion editor of my magazine.   It was confiscated and I did not make it into the final awards ceremony.  These two guys did, though they did not have either a press pass or a ticket.  These two fashion students actually made it into every single show of China Fashion Week SS ‘10 without any documents allowing entry.  They would just sneak in – once or twice on my coattails.  For the final event, they walked past the guards into a side door, even though there were metal detectors before all of the official entrances.

In a very tight coffee shop right near the China Fashion Week venues, I met Ms. Guo Pei (郭培), one of the most well-known Chinese designers.  As I was heading in, she was leaving, together with Cabeen (here’s his show), another major designer.  One of my biggest regrets this week is that I did not make the trip out to the Olympic Green to see her show.   It just seemed too far and I was feeling a bit moody on Friday night.  Her work is covered in the China Daily, Fashion Wire Daily, and the All China Women’s Federation, to name a few.  Check her SS ‘10 show.   The theme was the thousand and second night.  Here’s her blog, also.

Some shows have been memorable, some bland, and others had nice pieces.  As one might expect, there is quite a difference in the types of people who attend each show, based largely on the clout of the brand and the designer.  Some are filled with design students and some boast the gliteratti of the fashion press.  Here is the China Daily introduction to the week.

I skipped the NE Tiger (东北虎）show on Monday because I had to write an article and their shop displays have always irritated me.  The designs seem like an injustice to the majestic beast.   Still, the pics make look interesting in a way.

Qi Gang (above) is one of the names I hear most this week (his two shows are Mihuang (米皇) Cashmere Collection and Secfashion). Apparently, the vast majority of the items in the Mihuang show were 100% cashmere or blends.

The second show I saw was Entra, which seemed more wearable and less conceptual.

Next was the Tsai Meiyue wedding dress show.  It opened with a very cute little girl (scroll down) coming down the runway with one of the models.  The show was pleasant.  Focusing on wedding dresses is a clear recipe for success here.

The Throb Immobile show was traumatizing, as the name of the brand could imply.  The clothes, models, and music all seemed to suggest the lifestyles of the elite in some dystopian future in which natural fibers have gone the way of the polar ice cap.  The show ended with a yet another, still more mangled, electro Carmina Burana, which will prevent me from ever again enjoying Orff’s masterpiece.

The styles at the DGVI show ranged from sexy, to tawdry, to gaudily slutty, meaning it was quite entertaining and fun.  There was an actual DG and some of the music played was very charming.  The style was Miss Sixty with a strong dose of Wenzhou, which is probably where most of the dreadfully cheap chic of that Italian brand is produced anyway.  The problem with fashion shows like this, especially in China, is that I’m never sure about whether the effect of the clothes and styling is what was intended by the creative team.  Well, actually, in this case I think it was.  Mr. Li Zhilong, the heavily-accented Creative Director, wearing a shiny (clearly synthetic) velvet suit and shades,  looked right in his element surrounded by the models, all in jeans that had at least ten zippers.  This was the only show I’ve seen that had a large number of foreigners in the audience.  I think the entire German and Austrian embassies were there.  Afterwords, this show also had a nice cocktail party, as foreigners tend to expect.

The high point of Tuesday was the Cocoon show.  This view is clearly shared by the fashion media as this was the only event on Tuesday at which the elites of that group were in evidence.  Both the China Vogue and Bazaar editors-in-chief attended as did some minor Hong Kong celebrities.  This show had quite a bit that stylish women would really covet.  It was also the first one that revealed some understanding of color.  The use of polka dots was especially appealing.  The night shows are the must-see ones.

Regina Ye, who makes me think of this girl, is studying fashion design here in Beijing.

Slouchy pants are almost the norm these days in Beijing.  This young lady is a fashion designer who was at Lane Crawford.

Visual Merchandiser Paul Cheng has been working very hard over the last couple of days.  Here he is in a very interesting Raf Simons jacket.  Those shoes are ready for action.

Xander Zhou (周翔宇) was one of a huge crowd of celebrities attending fashion for Anna Wintour’s Fashion’s Night Out.  All eyes have been on this young fashion designer since he guest edited the August “Gay China” issue of media sorceress Hong Huang’s (洪晃) fashion magazine “ILOOK” (more at Gayographic and China Hush).  Though there have been many smaller gay-friendly publications opening and closing over the last decade, this was the first time a mainstream magazine made nature’s bachelors and their role in fashion the focus of an issue.  I met Xander last at a fabric store in Muxiyuan.

Also at the Vogue party in the basement of the World Trade Center was Beijing brit-rock band Super VC (at a Burberry event).  There were huge crowds and droves of celebrities making more stylites photos during the after-party up at Aria difficult.

No gold chain, no dark chest hair, no grease, and no high-rolling swagger on this fashion fellow who omitted a shirt, opting for simply a sport coat.  This super light cotton sport coat is really a brilliant idea for summer, in which I am never comfortable in even the thinnest linen suit without lining.  I fear the look would seem different – maybe even a tad sleazy – on me.

An instructor at Central Saint Martins College, London, Kevin Tallon now designs for a very fashion-forward sportswear label with Italian roots, now here in China.  He is spearheading efforts to make this brand the most stylish one in its category for the Chinese market.  The first collection will be in stores this fall.

He makes the long flight out to Beijing almost every month, so he is now considering whether it might not be better to settle his two daughters and wife here in Beijing.  It would be a fabulous chance for them learn the most important language of the 21st Century and experience its most important economy.  He’s just a little bit worried about the pollution here.

Kevin, who also appeared last year on Stylites, just came out with a book on fashion trends among Chinese youth that relies heavily on my photos.  The book, Fashion Tribes: China,  is now available on Amazon, and looks in depth at the rapidly changing fashion landscape here.

A Marketing Director at Van Cleef’s & Arpels, Ms.  Aude Bousser has worked for fashion brands for quite a few years though she returns to her home in Paris nearly every month.  She thinks that opportunities are much more in the Asia market, especially China, both because of the growth and because women are more inclined to make decisions on purchases like jewelry by themselves and then spend their own money.  Further, she says that Chinese women with careers tend to be more independent minded than their sisters in the West.

After opening a new shop at Wangfujing, the next big task will be this fall in Hangzhou, where she believes Van Cleef’s & Arpels is less known but the people of the city love to spend on luxury goods.

Her dress is from Diane Von Furstenberg