Nels Frye is a freelance writer, photographer, consultant and stylist, based in Beijing. Focuses are on street style, other consumer trends, and broader social issues.
Prepared to go acquiring, some men at the opening party of Lane Crawford are looking cool.
They could feel confident that Lane Crawford selected the best pieces from each of the labels on offer. Rick Owens, Burberry Prorsum, Viktor and Rolf, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Neil Barrett, and Alexander Mcqueen are in Beijing for the first time. The new Dior Homme shop opposite confirms that Beijing is no longer a men’s fashion backwater.
Here are Beijing’s best shoes. Check N.D.C Made by Hand brogues (4,100). Lane Crawford is China’s only distributor of these and the Spanish Preventi (around 2,500). Church’s (5,800-6,800), bench-made in the UK, are among the earth’s best shoes, though boring Zegnas are still the top sellers at Lane Crawford. Uh, not to mention the John Lobbs (14,000+).
The tie, shirt, and scarf selection was acceptable, but for lovelier choices, check Allen in Oriental Plaza. More pocket squares would be nice. Standouts were Burberry Prorsum slim ties (1,895) and Viktor and Rolf star print ties (1,000). Choices in attractive corporate-friendly ties lagged; brands missing include Hilditch and Key, Charvet, and Massimo Bizzochi. The Italy-made store brand shirts (1,400) suffice, but Turnbull and Asser or Borrelli would outclass. Skip Vivienne Westwood scarves – the orb is old – but indulge in an over-dyed Raf Simons “split ends” scarf (3300).
Officewear is Dunhill, Zegna, Pal Zileri, and Armani, familiar brands that will sate nearby ibankers and private equity thugs, and generate steady cash flow. The well-edited collections save trips to their boutiques, but truly exclusive brands like Barbera, Isaia, or Belvest might be nice. Choose Pal Zileri for its superior construction – a one button, peak lapel, s120 navy pinstriped suit (18,300) needs you. Non-sale prices include alterations. Skip the Paul Smith suits, but try out his beige, velvet-collared, crombie (13,700).
For divine experiences, blending high fashion with great tailoring, go for the silk/wool Alexander Mcqueen suit (26,700), which makes shimmering look good and will doubtless adorn a popstar, and the black Burberry Prorsum wool/cashmere coat with braided epaulettes (27,350) that seemed custom-made for me. Or you could get personalized replicas custom-made by a tailor here in Beijing.
Always in vintage fitted blazers or ‘70s cords brought back from the West by friends, Max packs the aesthetic punch needed to market one of Beijing’s trendiest bars, China Doll, where he is the director of PR.
This picture was also featured in the November issues of That’s Beijing.
The best colors for dress shirts are white, light blue, and light pink.
These are the safest bets for most complexions. With at least one solid shirt in each of these colors, you should be able to match 95% of ties. Gray and navy suits in pinstripes, checks, and textures go with all three of these colors as do more complicated suit patterns.
She claims no profession and lives to enjoys life, presumably basking in her own rugged coquettery by night and rummaging through Xidan markets by day.
This picture was also featured in the November issue of That’s Beijing. Stylites in Beijing is a regular part of the fashion section of Beijing’s premier English Language magazine. Look out for pictures from Lane Crawford in the December issue.
Just to stir up some controversy, I am going to begin offering a daily men’s style tip. The rules of men’s fashion are debated endlessly, so I expect there will be much disagreement with the advice I give. I invite readers to post all of that in the comments. The daily men’s style tips on stylites.net are just my opinion. Obviously, there are numerous exceptions and examples of people who look very stylish when they don’t take these tips. I don’t even follow all the advice I will be giving, but I wish I did. For most men, these are good ideas. Women’s style is extremely complicated, but I hope to invite some outside experts to post their opinions here. Eventually, we will offer a women’s style tip as well. Men’s style tip #1: For odd wool slacks (those not part of a suit), go with browns and grays.
These colors are the easiest to match with odd sport coats and blazers, shoes, and dress shirts. If possible, to add interest to your outfit, find subtle textures in these colors like houndstooth, herringbone, checks, and birdseye weaves. Unless the stripes are highly unique, meaning they couldn’t possibly be part of a suit, avoid stripes. Don’t choose navy or black trousers. Navy looks like orphaned suit trousers and black is not as versatile or pleasant on the eye unless it is contrasted with white or paired with black – in these cases for fashion forward looks.
Wendy, the youngest and hippest bartender in Q Bar, makes it happen with her cute rebelliousness. The black tie affirms her professional credentials while anchoring the abrasiveness in her gaze. Her attitude is what makes it.
Q Bar makes the best cocktails of any bar in Beijing and it also has the widest selection. Highlights include the frozen daiquiris, all types of martini, and the Q Bar signature drinks. They will know what you mean if you say” “rusty nail”. The prices are almost on an international level, reflecting the better service and presumably real booze. The crowd is almost exclusively foreign and the bar doesn’t have anything particularly “Beijing” about it, aside from Wendy, and the view of high-rises outside. It is good place to hang out if you live in Beijing, since the only other places with real cocktails tend to be hotel bars. If you are visiting, I would recommend checking out more atmospheric places like Lan, Suzie Wang, Bed Bar, Rockstar, and Salud.
Dayang wears a cardigan from his elementary school days and his dad’s necktie. He does design and rock and roll and appears to dedicate himself to authenticity, preferring to avoid retail outlets if possible. It’s rare to see such a thrift-store like look in Beijing, where buildings, clothes, and everything else tend to be spanking new. However, Dayang’s look seems very appropriate for Nanluoguxiang, Beijing’s foremost Hutong turned cute commercial district.
The present, or perhaps already passed, obsession with “authenticity” displayed by many in the current generation has not yet become mainstream in China, but one can see the start. While young people from humbler backgrounds may question why I would choose a courtyard home with all of its quirks over a swank modern apartment built just last year, more educated types, normally with some exposure to the West, have started to get it. The backlash against manufactured, homogeneous and often contrived culture might begin. A style of consumerism that displays individual choice and an appreciation of genuine products and natural materials is growing. Still, pleather boots and neon shorts still outnumber the cashmere cardigans and second-hand brogues picked up while rummaging through a street market in London.
There are a number of technical, editing, and design problems that need to be resolved on the site. Please forgive the delay in getting the website completely ready. It will be updated regularly despite these various glitchs and problems, so please keep checking back. Everything should be sorted out within the next two weeks. Thank you for your patience.
This gathering on Sunday, November 4, at Xinghua Hutong will celebrate my mother’s visit, the reemergence of stylites.net and the beauty of Beijing’s autumn. Please come between 1:30 pm and sundown. There will be chuan’r, mulled wine, and other booze and food. Also, a small yard sale, the proceeds of which will go to a TBD local environmental NGO. Bring fashionable rags to sell if you are interested and also any contributions to the liquor cabinet. Please RSVP to nels@stylites.net for instructions and a map.
The world’s most durable and attractive wools and cashmeres hail from the British Isles, in my opinion. Now they are coming as part of a trade delegation to get their piece of the ever more gigantic China market.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1727002007
As Chinese businessmen learn more about the art of fine dressing, they will demand that their suits be made from brands like Holland & Sherry and Johnstons of Elgin, both part of this delegation. It will be interesting to see whether brands like this can achieve even greater success than they have in Japan. I want to find out how to get hold of some of this fabric, also.
Burberry Prorsum, YSL Rive Gauche, Dries Van Noten, Viktor and Rolf – boyz you can finally get their latest pieces right here in Beijing! For the more conservative types, there is a better selection of Pal Zileri, Armani, and Zegna than is even available in their rather patronizingly edited boutiques.
Ample champagne, beautiful clothes, and more stylish people than I have ever seen in one place – the Lane Crawford opening party was great fun and the pictures I will add over the next week will highlight this. Stay tuned for my review of the new store in the next That’s Beijing.
Before that, let me proclaim: the arrival of this store here is a revolution. Beijing at last hosts a well-curated treasury of global fashion’s top designs. China’s cultural center deserved a fashion emporium that matched its artistic spirit. It is here. Other retailers and many retail consultants underestimated the maturity of the market, thinking that designers could get away with offering a selection combining re-runs of old seasons, loud branded dross, and a whole load of Hugo Boss and Dunhill. The Beijing fashion consumer is more sophisticated than that, as Lane Crawford astutely realized. Should I be their chief of PR?
The men’s selection maximizes time and taste, two values essential to the global cognitive elite. Men can now find the most stylish pieces pieces on offer in the city on just two floors. It is better than anything in any of the single-brand boutiques or department stores here before.
Lane Crawford fills a gap and the nouveaus with the cash to shop there and not enough time to find a good tailor will have a big advantage. The problem in Beijing is that if you want off-the-rack apparel that combines quality with style, you can only turn to the expensive stuff or a tailor. There is no decent high-street, no consignment shops, and no discount shops like Filene’s Basement.
The greens are an attempt to evoke the natural environment for which he must long, since he has reentered the beige and gray fray of his hometown, Beijing. He attended university in Nicosia, of all places. A short Fiat ride from the city are a wider range of azure and emerald shades than could ever be imagined by any maker of fashion dyes.
Paul Frank is widely available in China, where it is produced. The Paul Frank logo can be found on socks selling for fifty cents in markets throughout Beijing. On a side note: my girlfiend just purchased a brown mat for our cat that bears the Yves Saint Laurent logo.
This website is in development and will eventually acquire a unique design, but will still be updated daily. I beg you to tolerate the inconsistency of the design of stylites.net for the time being. Please do not let this deter you from checking back regularly. The essence of stylites.net is in the photos and words as well as the enterprises we represent.
3.3 is one of the many malls of Sanlitun, the formerly gritty and atmospheric, now increasingly malled-in section of Beijing. Despite the typically offensive structure in which it is housed, this mall offers a unique charm, since it is devoid of chain stores. The first floor features old-school Chinese gaudiness with the usual lace and glitter, but on the third floor is one of China’s few designer resale shops, specializing in apparel and accessories formerly used by celebrities. In the basement are some very cute craftsy places.
The forth floor is a twisted paradise of designer and trendy rags for men and the leading emporium of Chinese Paul Smith. Several stores specialize in shirts, bags, and ties in patterns and fabrics inspired by and using the label of the quirky British knight. The Paul Smith “replicas” are an excellent example of how Chinese counterfeiters go well beyond mere copying to actually imbibe the style of the original brand in their own new creations. Some of the Paul Smith “replicas” are of tolerable quality, though clearly not up to the original. As many Beijing fashionistas must be aware, “100% cotton” here tends to exhibit many of the, sweat-inducing, qualities of poly-blend fabrics after a few wearings, even if it does seem like cotton while on the rack. The fabric used for the Paul Smith dress shirts is, however, superior to that of the custom-made “100% cotton” shirts in Ya Xiu and Xiu Shui. Stay away from the fake Paul Smith shoes though, as the soles could bring orthopedic problems. More on fake Paul Smith later.
One of the more interesting shops catering to the designer clothing-addict without a trust fund is right and up from the escalator and offers Dior Homme, Yohji Yamamoto, Raf Simons, and other more cult (read: adored in Shibuya and appropriate for the Japanese physique) designer labels. Photographed here are the two shopkeepers. These replicas are produced in a Guangdong factory run by a Japanese man. Intended for export to Japan, some key samples nonetheless have surfaced in 3.3.
He goes by the name “Kele” – Chinese for coke (the drink) and hails from the great Northeast. Of course for Dsquared, you don’t need to go to 3.3, as it is more plentiful in Beijing than the Gap in suburbia.
He was in a hurry and didn’t have much time to chat. This was right by the Xiehe Hospital on Dongdan. I think this fellow looks great though – picky but relaxed – studied disheveledness but not in a preppy way. Tie with sneakers rarely works. (0) Comments | Post Comment
Stylites in Beijing will soon be moving to a permanent address: stylites.net. Before this move occurs, updates may be less frequent, so I ask you to bear with me. We have to try to make our new home stylish before moving in. It might be a sort of bohemian shack at first though.
Anyway, I will send notification when the next site is up and running.
Riding my bike out of the Candy Floss Cafe – one of Beijing’s best spots for sunny Sunday afternoon, I encountered this apparition. Judging by her gear, she is a much more serious photographer than I pretend to be. I adore women with colorful scarves. She was on her way to some kind of performance, apparently in the company of her mother.
A fellow who lives on the tenth floor of my building. We met him in the elevator. I don’t know how he managed to evade me for the last thirteen months. Perhaps the only interesting looking individual in the entire several-thousand-man-strong residential complex.
If you don’t live in China, you might not find this fellow exceptional.
But most of his contemporaries are extreme of dowdiness. They are pudgy little goons wearing brown polyester polo shirts with the playboy logo and sporting a comb-over and a pleather manbag. Styles like this just aren’t common in his generation.
Here we have John Travolta’s Grease hair-do with a late ’80s “our country just opened to the West” Chinese swoosh. He bought this pair of flared jeans sixteen years ago and has been wearing them since. I told him I thought he must be an artistic type, and he responded that he was just a normal working man. (0) Comments | Post Comment
Rating Yang Fan as an artist is beyond my ability, but her paintings admirably depict the young Chinese girl dominated by materialism and faintly understood Westernized values.
These are beautiful girls whose ideals for fashion, physique, and sexual expression changed drastically in the space of a few years.
Life was service to family. It suddenly became the pursuit of pleasure.
These girls are much more stylish and attractive than the typical specimen you see just off the train at Beijing’s Central Station (right next to my work).
A young shop assistant at the Muxiyuan Fabric market.
A young hipster on Chaonei Avenue. He described himself as a freelancer, but his two, less stylish, friends said that he doesn’t have a job. His main inspiration is Japanese youth fashion and he buys rags at Xidan.
I may not go. How could it possibly be as charming as the old Vic’s?
Really. Ignore the packaging for a moment. A place isn’t made so much by the decor and music as by the wit and beauty of its clientale. It was a place with men of style and women of substance.
It’s amusing to recall the image in my mind when I first heard of Vic’s.
My New York friend, who had never actually been himself, suggested I go since he had heard it was THE place for expats in Beijing.
I imagined a Bogartesque owner, named Vic, nursing a scotch or maybe even a mint julep while his gaze lingered on a lovely Danish photographer just back from the Onon river in Mongolia. There would be a North Korean propoganda movie director, really a spy, aiming to befriend gullible but lovable Midwesterners in derby hats. A Japanese diplomat, somehow blending stiffness with affability, would be stroking his Siamese cat as he spoke perfect French with an aspiring actress just off the plane from Paris, trying to hide that she was from a village outside Toulouse and not the capital. The wife of an unnamed but utterly powerful CCP official would be present, but no one would be sure which of the elegant ladies was her.
The movie is not incredible, but the bar Ralph Fiennes opens in the White Countess would be nice in reality. I thought Vics would be a bit like that bar, with all of its intrigues and glamour.
Instead I got six high school students doing shots, two Chinese girls snorting coke for the first time in the bathroom, and some skinny Long Islanders hanging out upstairs, humping all the new arrivals.
Comments
Funny~ I think I have been to Vics twice. I gotta say I prefer the place across the street. Posted by Pescatore on 05/18/2007 02:06:28 AM
Pesci, you came to Beijing without contacting me? Posted by stylites on 05/18/2007 02:51:50 AM
This man could be anywhere in China. They are the dark dandies of urban streets. The hair cutters. The men who dare prance. Long, slim, shoes are essential.
This is at Chaonei South Street. To see really over-the-top hair cutters, you should head to Hangzhou.
Despite the thousands of people switching trains at Fuxingmen, I still spotted this guy, beyond the wall.
He’s a petite bourgeois who owns a clothing store.
Quite an appropriate image for Tom Meaney’s birthday – no? They would totally be friends.
We can do blazers in this cut, too, but the quality of the fabric and buttons would be far superior. I’ll even perform a complimentary lip piercing for you.
All of a sudden, as I was walking out of the Willy Ronis photography exhibit at Beijing Capital Museum, everyone seemed to wearing suspenders. The thin suspenders with a tee shirt and skinny pants look was revived on the Dior Homme runway for the spring 2006 collection, but it has long been an emblem of various British rocker subcultures. The “skinheads” of Beijing adore prancing about in this style.
This fellow leads a band that frequently performs at the Nameless Highland. His shirt actually says “skinhead”, as do the tee-shirts of most Beijing skinheads.
This is the first woman I have seen in China wearing suspenders – and they are these very slim plaid ones. I noted that the dude that walked out of the exhibit right before her was also wearing suspenders, and she made clear that she had absolutely no connection with him and was following her own style muse. It was just a coincidence that there were two suspendered people walking out of the Willy Ronis exhibit at the same time. She is studying journalism and shops at Xidan mainly. She wanted my number.
Here shoes were in some ways more notable than her suspenders.
Below Hedi Slimane shows us that the thin suspenders look is best executed with a sleeveless shirt.
And white socks on display.
The two-tone shoes are also essential.
And a subtle cat reference in your trousers is never a minus. I tried to find a photo with a man wearing suspenders, but couldn’t, so here is the classic if you don’t recall Willy Ronis:
China’s retail sales hit 320 billion yuan (42 billion U.S. dollars) during the May Day holidays, up 15.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The ministry said liquid crystal TV sets, jewelry, digital cameras, and fashion clothes were among the bestsellers.
The whole problem is that they don’t consume enough and the economy depends on exports, meaning US consumption. Put simply, China runs into trouble when the US economy dips, as it could be doing now. In the United States, the contribution of domestic consumption to growth is over three times the contribution of exports. International trade matters more to China than it does to the US.
When the contribution of domestic consumption to GDP in China is doubled or tripled that of exports, many key parts of China will be under water. When all Chinese consume at an American level, there will be much less oxygen and dry land on the planet. But humans always evolve. To leapfrog ahead in their conceptual thinking, young Chinese fashion designers need to showcase mandarin collar tees with slits in the side for gills. What will be the fashion in our “submerged future with Chinese characteristics”?
Comments
grammar mistakes notwithstanding, the last paragraph is the best thing I have read all day Posted by pescatore on 05/09/2007 06:38:32 AM
Uh…those are all for effect. Thanks. Posted by stylites on 05/09/2007 07:58:49 AM
The future is Waterworld with Chinese characteristics? A cheesey place, no doubt. Posted by stylites on 05/09/2007 08:00:29 AM
Excellent blog article. Is the man or woman on the street concerned about becoming a throwaway society? Or is China still far from discarding last year’s fashions? Are they thinking of building and renting “storage units” so people can box and store years of unused but accumulated shoes, clothes and cheap furniture? Or can they still ship such unwanted items to the Chinese countryside or sell and give away to Africa? The problem of overconsumption has incrimental ramifications. Not all are in the government domain. Posted by khavurta on 05/11/2007 03:30:05 AM
Obviously the wealthy and those aspiring to seem wealthy have a great antipathy toward used items. I would assume that there is a reluctant market for them in the countryside and among the urban poor. Solutions to the problems caused by overconsumption can always be transferred into the government domain in the form of taxes. However, society seems to reject environmental/consumption taxes and government doesn’t want them because they curb growth (leading to unempolyment and instability). Our vicious cyclic addiction to growth cannot stop, meanwhile the cost of environmental degradation is never allowed to figure in. It’s more than just the environment – the cost of all things long term are irrelevant in the growth equation. But there is no point in being an irrational activist. There are reasons growth can’t stop. Well, in this way Europe seems to have a more durable model. It’s too bad demographics will forestall the development of a European century. Posted by stylites on 05/11/2007 08:53:31 AM
These leggings are a hot thing. Widening horizontal stripes are good for slim Chinese people and they are everywhere now. If you want a sailor or prison style shirt, come to China. They were out shopping with their two boyfriends, both owners of clothing shops nearby.
The Air Jordan 1 XQ China Edition will be available exclusively on the Chinese main June 1. Styling highlights include dragon inspired patterns, laser designs, and use of silk material.
A large demographic will rush to welcome this riveting new style with collectors hoarding the limited supplies of the original. To beat the lines, try fine boutiques in Xidan or 3.3 offering “replicas” in advance of the June 1 release date.
