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Two Dress Shirts

Senli and Frye is giving two complimentary shirts with every suit order during the month of October. This is the time to get your executive wardrobe in order for the colder months. You can also get a three-piece tweed for those impending hunting expeditions. Also, do you have a well-cut double-breasted suit in royal blue or a corduroy suit? Don’t wear charcoal or navy for that gala.

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Our partner boutique PR and Marketing firm, Afflux, can get you set up on Chinese social media for extremely reasonable rates. This is worth it not only for promoting your sales here in China but also to raise general awareness of your brand or company since Chinese tourists do much of their spending while traveling. Our focus is on setting your business up on Weibo and Wechat but we excel at other platforms as well. Contact dion (at) affluxmcc (dot) com for more information.

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The Denim Dandy

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There are not a huge number of options when it comes to menswear, so it is rare for truly something new to come along. Lapel widths and fits change all the time, but entirely new products or modes of dressing are not frequently witnessed. The last two decades have seen a revolution in premium denim that qualifies as an entirely new category of dressing. within the world of premium denim, perhaps the most interesting type of product is probably Japanese denim made on traditional American looms. Japanese denim is now the holy grail for jeans-lovers and this is probably going to change much in the near future since this is more about inherent quality than any particular style or fashion trend. Mr. Hidehiko Yamane, who created the Evisu brand in 1991, is widely viewed as a pioneer in this field.

Evisu was at the HUB in Hong Kong, but so was the latest project by Mr. Yamane, an eponymous brand focusing on a more sartorial, almost dandyish style of denim. The Yamane product line that ties together several recent movements in men’s style for a result that I would define as sartorial denim or “the Denim Dandy”. Recently, we have gone through Mad Men, the revival of enthusiasm for unstructured Neapolitan style, and the proliferation of e-gents on sites like Styleforum. Concurrently, other style tribes have sought ever more rarefied denim and streetwear. Yamane fuses these impulses and answers the need that the mainstream man has for items that make him look formal enough and hip enough but do not feel as restricted or difficult to maintain as classic menswear. Despite the recent revival of formality and all the rules of dressing, there remains an abiding desire for casualness. Yamane offers a great way to do it. I talked to Yosumi Yuji, the head of the Yamane showroom in Hong Kong, on the sidelines of the HUB.

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Timely Fashion

While trends in fashion and related arenas are fleeting, changing by the season, fashion show, or trend set by some celebrity, some fashion items never go out of style and basically remain the same. Watches belong to this class of item that doesn’t change much, but never really goes out of style either. Besides their practical functions, they are an all-round accessory; different watches can be matched to fit any outfit, event, or style. Watch are the most versatile accessory.

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Nexus of Niche

Nothing matters more for fashion brands big and small than Chinese consumers. Now niche brands are flocking to these realms, many of them choosing Hong Kong’s the Hub (August 28-30) as a point to launch their Eastern adventures. The delicately curated list of brands from the West, Japan and other parts of Asia come to this event seeking partnerships with influential retailers and major investors in the Mainland and beyond. The Hub both catalyzes and embodies many major changes in the global fashion industry and overall style zeitgeist.

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Capturing the Style Zeitgeist

Boticca offers that rush of excitement that online shopping promised. Tired of the succession of websites with the same generic products from the old hyper-labels under PPR, LVMH, etc. all at similar high prices or even discount, we want to past all the flashy propaganda of the last two decades telling us the only route to status was a logoed bag or scent. The post-megabrand era is here for the style elite, which needs unique items that reflect their own eclectic, creative identity. Intelligent consumers won’t pay the needless markup for an item owned by thousands across the world. They expect expert work, unique design available in limited volumes and an products that have an appealing, fully articulated story.

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A liberating joy of the internet is that we can stop buying only the brands with the scale and financing to set up on Main Street. Sites like Boticca, plus the efficiency and reliability of modern shipping, should let consumers from Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, to Xining, Qinghai, dress as stylishly and uniquely as those in Manhattan. If your search can find it, it can be yours. A creative designer and artisan like Japan-born, Florence-based Arata Fuchi who uses South Korean Kum-bo crafting techniques themselves might have lacked the scale needed for marketing and retailing. A platform like Boticca provides the platform for the type of unique eclectic brand or individual that might have once only been available from a little store in some alleyway in Naples or Marakesh.

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Exoticism and rarity are not enough, of course. The curators from Boticca have the right eye too. Their selection – now over 10,000 unique pieces from 345 designers based in 42 countries worldwide – focuses on items that are modern and traditional, both in their construction and in their conception. Many items do not shun their roots but instead find innovative, clever ways to explore their contemporary cultures. The mix of bright colors and a metal grill of the Red Quilted Crystal Shoulder bag by Dubai’s Poupée Couture parodies the uncomfortable balance of social restraint and desire to express inherent to womanhood in the Arab world. Concurrently, it employs motifs and materials that emerge from the tradition of the region. Regardless of its meaning, the end result is a piece that makes a very memorable statement. This, like many items on the site, is available only in very limited numbers. There are only a few left.

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The Hub

The Hub represents a transition of fashion’s focal point to Asia and the increasing interest of Chinese consumers in more niche brands as well as the rising importance of menswear in this area. This rather curated list of brands from the West and the region come seeking partnerships with influential retailers and major investors in the Mainland and beyond. In the categories of “Heritage”, “Contemporary”, “Street” and “Indigo”, they include Sunspel, Henri Lloyd, Barbour, Y-3 and 70 other brands from the UK, US, Japan, and other European countries. Here is an article from Menswear Insight on the event.

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High Waist


By Suzy

Skirts, pants, shorts, dresses, the high waist is an essential look for Chinese girls. I have asked around and the universal reaction appears to be that this is a great way to mitigate the effect of legs that are shorter in proportion to the body.

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Avant-Garde Design a Chinese Export

By Sally

An inspiring article about the new generation of Chinese garment designers. Graduates from western design schools, they incorporate traditional Chinese elements such as fire, wind and dragon into their couture, creating a futuristic and flattering result. China’s high fashion industry has definitely grown at an unprecedented speed. But is it really to become China’s next biggest export? Can it penetrate more into its motherland? These are all future questions faced by Chinese designers.