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Here I am, unedited, and sounding like an intellectual who doesn’t know very much. I was caught on my way out of a show and did not have any time to prepare. There wasn’t really even that much cat.
Also, at stylelist.com, here are pictures of the 20 strangest looks from China fashion week, without any mention of the designers. I know the names of some of them though there are sadly quite a few that I did not catch.
Another China Fashion Week find that is probably weaves together quite a few threads, subcultures, and themes. Despite her dimensions, she was there to watch the shows, not participate in them.
Cyrus is the PR director for Proctor and Gamble, here in Beijing. What a great name?
He didn’t care that China Fashion Week had ended.
The press pass that had gained me entrance to 20 shows over the course of a week was in the name of the fashion editor of my magazine. It was confiscated and I did not make it into the final awards ceremony. These two guys did, though they did not have either a press pass or a ticket. These two fashion students actually made it into every single show of China Fashion Week SS ’10 without any documents allowing entry. They would just sneak in – once or twice on my coattails. For the final event, they walked past the guards into a side door, even though there were metal detectors before all of the official entrances.
In a very tight coffee shop right near the China Fashion Week venues, I met Ms. Guo Pei (éƒåŸ¹), one of the most well-known Chinese designers. As I was heading in, she was leaving, together with Cabeen (here’s his show), another major designer. One of my biggest regrets this week is that I did not make the trip out to the Olympic Green to see her show. It just seemed too far and I was feeling a bit moody on Friday night. Her work is covered in the China Daily, Fashion Wire Daily, and the All China Women’s Federation, to name a few. Check her SS ’10 show. The theme was the thousand and second night. Here’s her blog, also.
China Fashion Week even brings out dapper outside people. I don’t encounter outfits like this Frenchman’s so often, here in Beijing, but he has been here over a decade, he says.
An attendee at most of the key China Fashion Week events, this handsome editor was outside of the Beauty Berry show, which he thought was very nice. His boots, in this pic, are actually covered on the outside in wool.
Interestingly this China Daily piece does not even mention Beauty Berry, focusing on other brands that I thought were much less impressive.
You know you have been in China for a long time when you can write several posts on a brand called Beauty Berry without even commenting on the name.
Beauty Berry was very much anticipated by Beijing’s fops, fashionistas, and pretty boys and they were out in force. Designer Wang Yutao (王玉涛) should be pleased that the audience was very receptive, if comments from several magazine editors can be taken as a measure. A surprise appearance by supermodel Lv Yan bolstered the show, bringing a flurry of applause from the audience. I would be interested to find out where Beauty Berry pieces can be had.
This photographer has been at quite a few of the shows at China Fashion Week SS ’10.
Just look at the runways at China Fashion Week SS ’10. I encountered this young lady in the subway on the way to the Qi Gang show, where big cats were in evidence. But this was not the only show immersing spectators in themes from the jungle and Beijingers these days seem never to get enough leopard scarves, flats, bags, neckties and jackets. Is leopard “classic” now like blue and white stripes or gray herringbone?
Notice that this is one of the first times that I have broken my usual rule of steering clear of those with brand names visible. Yes, I am a member of that snobbish and reactionary anti-logo crew. They should be paying her to carry a bag that is an advertisement in itself.
Vivian Ying (åº”ç¿ å‰‘ï¼‰is the designer for Cocoon, which was my favorite of the shows I’ve seen so far at China Fashion Week. Here she is right before entering the Qi Gang show. From lovely Hangzhou, she also designs several other labels. Here she is wearing not one of her own designs; the sport coat is from Balmain, as can be seen from the shoulders.
See her whole SS10 collection at Yoka.com.
Qi Gang (ç¥åˆš) created a remarkable show for Secfashion. There was a bit of the jungle (with an actual stuffed wild cat in a model’s arm), a bit of Midsummer Night’s Dream meets The East is Red, and a large dose of high-octane glamour. I should think Qi Gang will be one of the main lights on the fashion scene for years to come.
Some shows have been memorable, some bland, and others had nice pieces. As one might expect, there is quite a difference in the types of people who attend each show, based largely on the clout of the brand and the designer. Some are filled with design students and some boast the gliteratti of the fashion press. Here is the China Daily introduction to the week.
I skipped the NE Tiger (东北虎）show on Monday because I had to write an article and their shop displays have always irritated me. The designs seem like an injustice to the majestic beast. Still, the pics make look interesting in a way.
Qi Gang (above) is one of the names I hear most this week (his two shows are Mihuang (米皇) Cashmere Collection and Secfashion). Apparently, the vast majority of the items in the Mihuang show were 100% cashmere or blends.
The second show I saw was Entra, which seemed more wearable and less conceptual.
Next was the Tsai Meiyue wedding dress show. It opened with a very cute little girl (scroll down) coming down the runway with one of the models. The show was pleasant. Focusing on wedding dresses is a clear recipe for success here.
The Throb Immobile show was traumatizing, as the name of the brand could imply. The clothes, models, and music all seemed to suggest the lifestyles of the elite in some dystopian future in which natural fibers have gone the way of the polar ice cap. The show ended with a yet another, still more mangled, electro Carmina Burana, which will prevent me from ever again enjoying Orff’s masterpiece.
The styles at the DGVI show ranged from sexy, to tawdry, to gaudily slutty, meaning it was quite entertaining and fun. There was an actual DG and some of the music played was very charming. The style was Miss Sixty with a strong dose of Wenzhou, which is probably where most of the dreadfully cheap chic of that Italian brand is produced anyway. The problem with fashion shows like this, especially in China, is that I’m never sure about whether the effect of the clothes and styling is what was intended by the creative team. Well, actually, in this case I think it was. Mr. Li Zhilong, the heavily-accented Creative Director, wearing a shiny (clearly synthetic) velvet suit and shades, looked right in his element surrounded by the models, all in jeans that had at least ten zippers. This was the only show I’ve seen that had a large number of foreigners in the audience. I think the entire German and Austrian embassies were there. Afterwords, this show also had a nice cocktail party, as foreigners tend to expect.
The high point of Tuesday was the Cocoon show. This view is clearly shared by the fashion media as this was the only event on Tuesday at which the elites of that group were in evidence. Both the China Vogue and Bazaar editors-in-chief attended as did some minor Hong Kong celebrities. This show had quite a bit that stylish women would really covet. It was also the first one that revealed some understanding of color. The use of polka dots was especially appealing. The night shows are the must-see ones.
I ran into this stylist after the Entra show, on the second day of China Fashion Week. Behind him are the buses that took press from the Beijing Hotel venue to D-Park, out at 798. All media members were provided with a free, authentic, Big Mac dinner on the way back from 798 to the middle of town. I’d never had a Big Mac before and I never thought my first one would come after watching hundreds of emaciated models.