STYLITES

About Stylites

Phone: [one] 391009241 [zero].

Stylites documents the blossoming of self-expression in contemporary China, providing a pictorial record of the most fascinating pedestrians in Beijing at the start of the 21st century, the moment when China had risen and its new greatness had became apparent to all.

Walking down Changan Avenue one night in 2007, I saw an unusual hobo whose face and manner somehow reminded me of Christ. He had a mustache, a staff, Adidas-like trainers, and a checked wool coat. I took a snap of this odd fellow and put it on Stylites, then my blog for random, often morbid, reflections.

Gradually, I started taking more photos of unusual types. Local magazines noticed and began carrying the pictures. Stylites quickly moved in the direction of street fashion.

Not long after that, I became Marketing Director for Senli and Frye, a menswear and tailoring boutique here in Beijing.

Stylites is named after the Christian ascetic, St. Simeon Stylites (390-459), an Assyrian monk who sat on top of a column outside of Antioch for over fifty years. He may have only worn a loin cloth, but a fellow who sat on a pillar for all to see for five decades had to be nearly as vain as anyone appearing on this site. I mean no disrespect toward the saint, and believe that his message of asceticism is one that all of those so interested in their appearance and generally temporal matters should bear in mind.

- Nels Frye
Creative Director
Stylites