Do toxins attract interesting styles? This university student certainly looks like she could live in a converted factory.

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agnès b. just opened a new shop in Sanlitun’s north village.

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Fish is a college student from Guangdong.  She describes her style as “retro” and her favorite designers are  Vivienne Westwood and  Martin Margiela.  Her favorite places for shopping are Beijing’s Gulou Street and Hong Kong.

张馨怡从广东来到北京上大学。自己的穿衣风格是“复古”，最喜欢的服装品牌是Vivienne Westwood和Martin Margiela。她平时喜欢在北京鼓楼东大街和香港购物。

Buyun says that morning she just threw on her few remaining clean clothes, so it was a bit of a shock to be included in a style blog.  Born in Fujian, she has lived in NYC since the age of three, growing up on Roosevelt Island of all places.  This little strip in the East River was originally intended as a kind of utopian community where all the classes would mix freely, but the end result was somewhat dystopian.   Apparently, the youth of Roosevelt Island get pregnant earlier, use illegal substance in greater quantities, and generally become life-long hooligans if they don’t escape to Manhattan.  Buyun made it to the larger island and is now getting her PHD at a famous school there.  Her focus is Chinese fashion history, particularly the Tang.  We might include some her findings on Stylites in the future.

陈步云在福建出生，纽约的羅斯福島长大。她在纽约读博士生，现在来了北京做研究。她写的论文关于服装历史，尤其唐朝。她说“自己没有一个特定的穿衣风格，但我一般会把经典的单品和古董衣混搭起来，再配上 结构化的外套或配师。” 她平时喜欢在北京的鼓楼和纽约的 Nolita逛街。

In a vintage Prada hat, Robin Cheng is now based in Vancouver, but he used to live in Beijing.

Robin Cheng是个1/4德国血，3/4汉族的混血。原来在北京住过但现居温哥华。他喜欢“美酒美食，漂泊流浪。” 我问了他一些问题。

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This young student was on her way into the Jefen by Frankie show.

This adorable student pair was strolling through Nanluoguxiang, arms linked.  The one in the red hat was far more outgoing.  They kind of remind me of these two.

我发现了这一对可爱的学生手臂相连的在南锣鼓巷逛街。戴红色帽子的女孩相比之下非常外向以及活泼。 他们给我的感觉让我想起了这一对。

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.

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.

An art student from Hong Kong on Nanluoguxiang. 香港来得艺术学生在垃圾桶旁边抽烟。

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.

A young accounting student who hopes to get into a more creative line of work.

I seem to keep photographing people with these trousers.

Fans don’t show up enough over the course of Beijing’s hot summers.  Though http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang#mce_temp_url# wields a feather fan to alter the course of the wind and rains, this one immediately made me think of the famous strategist.

Confucius said good government means the ruler acts as a ruler, the minister as a minister, the father as a father, and the son as a son.  He might have added that all rulers should be stylish rulers, fathers stylish fathers, etc.  This high school student from Hong Kong, in Beijing for several years,  does not try to dress like anything other than a student but does an original, chic, take on student style.  The look is also most Beijingy.

No one would mistake her for a provincial, but did we need further comfirmation that Parisian girls are born with style?  Visiting Beijing for the umpteenth time, staying in the St. Regis, Roxanne could still look good wearing this outfit in her twenties, thirties or beyond.  Most women never reach this in a lifetime, getting derailed by a whole host of ugly trends like distressed jeans and studded belts.  Even at ten, she has the understated charm and ability to meaningfuly accessorize for which the ladies of her city are known.

Seemlessly incorporating Chinese style elements, Roxanne bought her shoes at Qianmen.

A retired teacher, last here in Mao jacket, is now in fetching summer garb.  He lives in a hutong off Nanluoguxiang.

Photo: Weina Zhao

Just having finished university, this young lady from Sichuan is eager to make it big in the center of the empire.

Meng Yue (孟玥)adores all things Japanese, and her foreign name is Maruko.  From Beijing, she is attending university in Nanjing.  She was with two friends who have the exact same hair color as she does, but her style and feel was a bit sweeter than theirs.

Majoring in International Relations at mighty Beijing University, third-year Emmie would prefer to be studying something related to media.  The main problem, she says, is that international realtions is too politicized a field and one rarely learns anything with real substance.   As is the case with so many others who are unhappily wedded to their courses of study, Emmie ended up in International Relations as a result of her Gaokao score. Otherwise, she has no major complaints about life at Beida.  She gets along with her three roommates and feels lucky that she doesn’t live with five or even seven.

Her two-month summer internship at the PR company Ogilvy will hopefully set her on a more favorable path, which should allow her to work in foreign companies after graduation.  Often, majoring in something like international relations would only lead one to a government job or, at best, work in a state-run company.  Emmie points out that foreign companies in China and state-run companies operate in completely different systems.  Advancement in the latter depends almost completely on relationships, whereas the situation is somewhat more standardized with the foreigners.  Of course, she acknowledges, foreign companies must operate effectively in the guanxi system if they are to succeed in this country and degrees of localization vary a great deal from one company to the next.

I just encountered Adam, a rather remarkable fellow who will be blessing Xicheng district with his gentle but quirky charm for the next two weeks.  He is a Wushu practitioner who is, rather amazingly, just back from teaching this Chinese martial art in Shanxi.  Fluent in Persian, French and English, this LA-born half-Iranian has become quite good at Chinese after just a month in this country.

The all blue, all linen (besides the gator shoes) ensemble includes a sport coat from Armani and trousers from Comme des Garçons.