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Fit for an Empress

Beijingers will know that this comes late. Wuhao, the premier concept shop in the city, has already been open for a year. Wallpaper already described it as one of the top twenty reasons to visit China now and Stylites has featured the Wuhao Tea Shop pop-up at Beijing Design Week.

But, strangely I have never spoken much about what must be the world’s most beautiful retail setting. In a garden owned by the family of the last emperor’s wife, Wuhao Curated Shop is tucked behind an barely marked door in one of Beijing’s best preserved hutong areas. Installations change by the season with themes based on the elements and drawing heavily on the Yiqing or Book of Changes. The focus is young Chinese fashion and furniture designers, many of whom produce special lines or items for Wuhao. More pictures of the yard can be seen on the website.

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Flea Marketer

Yesterday, despite the strong winds, a horde of hip retro kids migrated to northeastern Beijing for a vintage flea market. The setting was the yard around 2 Kolegas, one of the city’s best known rock bars located in a former drive-in movie theater that never made it commercially.

Charmmy is fashion design student who also sells vintage clothes at markets like this and on Taobao shops for men and women.

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The Harmony Sofa

Many Chinese designs reference classic furniture of the Ming and Qing while introducing elements from modern design. The Harmony Sofa by Xiao Tianyu, at curated shop Wuhao, always attracts admiring gazes and cheerful loungers.

This comfy piece adds a wooden back right out of the Ming to the what looks very much like kind of “pouf” chair one might find in a college room or casual parlor in the West. A event graduate of Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Xiao not only fused East and West, but also rigid with relaxed.

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Over to Web Commerce

Who would have thought? Well-known photographer Gao Yuan is now in a creative directorial-type role at ihavu.com, a frenetically growing online commerce site that is the official web retailer for Rimowa and a growing roster of brands. Many respected media people have recently moved over to this site. I believe this is something of a mini-trend and suspect the other players in this arena have been attracting top editors and probably sales and marketing staff. Expect to hear more about this here.

Other rising flash sale, discounting and other sites in the fashion realm include VIPstore, xiu.com, 5lux, and Shangpin. They have all done major advertising campaigns in the subways, on TV and in magazines. Investment is clearly flowing in this direction.

 

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The Homely and the Heavenly

Here at hypervocal.com is an obnoxious piece about the fashion crimes of Beijingers. Perhaps the number of pretty women here has caused the author to have sour grapes. Of course there is a bit of rural dowdiness and sacharine glitz to behold, especially on the subways and near tourist sights. But the bunny ears, overabundant lace, and pop socks are charming in their way. Anyway, she’s evidently more caught up on plebes and provincials than the people appearing here on Stylites or at the Dolce & Gabbana party described here. That dynamic duo are a bit more positive about the local girls, describing them as “the most beautiful women in the world”.

by stylites -

Mr. GQ


Photo: Suzy

GQ Editor Dan Cui is considered by many in the field to be one of the most talented editors of a men’s magazine. We also ran into him at the Burberry event back in April. He is wearing a coat by Dries van Noten.

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Gao Yiqiang

Beijing-based Gao Yiqiang has created some of the most inspiring shapes in Chinese design. He finds inspiration everywhere from toys to calligraphy and ordinary household objects. He who studied industrial design at the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, has contributed to several books including Chinese Furniture and its Culture.

Among his missions is reconciling elements of traditional Chinese furniture like belief in spirits and preeminence of social status with Western influences such as dot, line, surface. His Ming Chair (above) is a good example of this type of blend.

 

The 8mm chair, with a shape inspired by randomly folded paper is probably his most iconic piece. He transferred this shape to stainless steel board, challenging the limits of the stainless steel board’s elasticity and toughness. Like most of his work, this one has not gone into production. Of course this won’t be for long. In Gao’s opinion “Individuality is becoming a way of life that guides consumption, and the younger generation is taking the lead.”