STYLITES IN BEIJING

Pout and Grin

At an American PR firm, Wang Xiaodong rocks the long cardigan and works mainly on Vidal Sassoon.  Song Ying, in media, just got back from studying in Korea and she says that the air is worse in Beijing now but the people are much more fashionable.  Does that mean that overall things are improving aesthetically?  In any case, Beijing girls still don’t care as much about appearances as Korean ones, who literally all have had plastic surgery.

7 comments June 10th, 2008

Cuddly Editor

Modern Weekly focuses on culture, fashion, and art and boasts a nationwide distribution of 450,000, highly concentrated in Shanghai and Beijing with relatively few readers in Guangzhou, following the pattern of most other trendy publications. Jocko is one of their editors and his colleague, Ms. Ding Yun, made the inspired decision to write a story on Stylites, boosting hits on the site.   Here is their article (in Chinese).

He proposed standing next to the men’s room. I must confess that I have used that bathroom on several occasions. Despite the pungent smell, there are often groups of men inside smoking and chatting.  I’m never tempted to join in and, so far, none of these guys has appeared on Stylites.

2 comments May 30th, 2008

Lu 12.28

A native Beijing designer, Liu Lu just opened her first shop on Nanluoguxiang.  After studying at an elite boarding school in Switzerland, she studied fashion design at Parsons in Manhattan.  Her brand, Lu 12.28 has ready-to-wear and haute couture lines.  She just adopted a very cute stray puppy that seems to be drawing in the clients.  In the photo, the top and skirt are her own designs. 

2 comments May 29th, 2008

Clothes from the ’70s

He’s always in fitted blazers or ‘70s cords, which is nice because it is unusual to see actual vintage clothing here in Beijing.  I believe Max is on the marketing team of China Doll, one of Beijing’s chicest clubs that will be reopening next month on the fifth floor of 3.3, a rather un-chic shopping mall in Sanlitun.  We’ll have to see how China Doll does sitting atop four floors of tassles, chains, lace, and fake Dior.  

1 comment May 20th, 2008

Oil Painter

We’ve got the diagonal plaid pants, the nautical-theme shirt and the hat, but Yalu, an oil painter.  New interpretations of these traditional themes are always exciting.

Add comment May 12th, 2008

Color Wheel Opposites

This is one of the more creative looks. A student at famous People’s University in TV and radio broadcasting, Hannah likes to dress in color wheel opposites with green being predominant.  Seems a bit like a Tokyo person in London or perhaps Dublin, which is not bad at all for a native Beijinger.   

6 comments May 2nd, 2008

Partners in Black

Zhao Le and Li Bo, from Harbin, were in Beijing for the weekend, but they hope to come back permanently in two years, following graduation, to work in the field of interior design.  Their favorite type of art is postmodern and they both describe their style of dress as androgynous. 

1 comment April 30th, 2008

Her True Colors

Michelle, a self-described “desk-slave” in US public relations company Burson Marsteller, believes a girl should be loyal to a set of colors and hers are rose, sherbet, and lemon.  Cute, princess-like styles suit Chinese girls best and for her that means round-toed flats and soft textures rather than fashion-slavish attempts to seem overtly sexy and chic; they should fight their inner sweetness.  As for Beijing’s straight men, they have thousands of li left to travel style-wise, she says.

2 comments April 29th, 2008

Loose and Billowy

From Guangdong Province, she says Beijing is less stylish than Guangzhou due to inferior access to products, but calls it a more authentically Chinese city than Shanghai. This very Hong Kong-style girl wonders how the locals can stand bicycling through such foul air though.

3 comments April 24th, 2008

Trench Coat Media

This pair grabbed my attention at once.

She is one of my favorites appearing here, for some reason or another.  This quirky TV executive rides her bike every day. She says it’s the best way to get around in a city with such traffic, and bicycling also helps the environment and allows riders to fully enjoy their natural and urban surroundings. However, riding can be an unpleasant experience outside of the second ring road. Her cotton trench is from Sisley.

1 comment April 23rd, 2008