Category: Pawnstar

This independent designer based between China and New Zealand – who shops regularly at Pawnstar – is wearing a very unique top with a traditional Chinese-style print.

Wearing a Cerrito Rose ring is Zouzou, who sells fresh-water pearls – we offer them on Pawnstar as well. She lives in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, which is almost an exurb of Shanghai.  She is wearing a Cerrito ring.

Cerrito is a handmade jewelry brand founded by John Antonio Cerrito, an American who served as a pilot in World War II. Mr. Cerrito designed beautiful and timeless jewelry representing love and light. With his deep understanding of metal processing, he perfected his metal roses with a unique gold plating and polishing technique.

The Pawnstar wechat QR Code in a special place.

Come to Pawnstar for Duval Leroy champagne to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  The Year of the Cock is upon us. Yes, we realize that you are probably not actually in town but some people are and for them this could be quite fun.  It says in the above flier that you need to bring a group but I think we can probably bend the rules if you spend 3000 yourself. In any case, we hope to see you for a few flutes of Duval Leroy champagne at the Clement Apartments.

China’s leading secondhand and consignment shop, Shanghai-based Pawnstar, focused mostly on contemporary fashion, but upcycling is one of the more unique things that this platform offers. Locally-based independent designer Shen Tian, whose English name is Nisa, works exclusively for Pawnstar on upcycling, often right on the second floor of the Clement Apartments.

This post contains some images of some of recent items created by Nisa. All of these items are completely one-of-a-kind. Above is a fascinator made from a combination of a necktie and other items.

These are earrings using feathers.

Scan this Wechat QR Code to add the Pawnstar customer service account, which also provides access to our full product range – from vintage to secondhand designer labels to unique up-cycled items.

Pawnstar, a really unique Shanghai shopping experience, can be enjoyed well beyond our shop in the French Concession!

The name Pawnstar is quite well-known around Shanghai at this point, so we may be stuck with it. I find it rather cute and I don’t think it’s seediness is problematic. What concerns me much more is that there is a famous show from the US with the same name. This obviously is detrimental when it comes to google search results. Most of you probably don’t know our Chinese name.

The Chinese name for Pawnstar is quite clever. The person who came up with it, Mr. Li Xuesong, is an extremely successful entrepreneur based in Beijing. He founded Flamingo, a conglomerate in the realm of real estate marketing or thereabouts. Dangpu (荡铺) is a homonym for the word that means Pawnshop (当铺). Pu just means storefront, but Dang (荡) is a tough word to translate. Probably the easiest way of thinking of it is as “swing”, I’m told. We created the concept of 荡铺 by combined Dang (荡) with the word for store and the result is a concept something along the lines of an adult store but it sounds like the word for Pawnshop. You see, a bit like Pornstar and Pawnstar.

As I’m sure anyone who has dealt with China and its language will know, homonyms are omnipresent. Our end-of-year user’s choice competition used one of the two characters as its name. We proclaimed 2017 the Year of the Chick, in anticipation of the Chinese New Year. Ji (姬) , an archaic word for concubine or high-end, and inevitably very talented, courtesan, is a homonym for Ji (鸡) or chicken or rooster.

Pawnstar has an exclusive relationship with fashion designer Shen Tian (申田, whose English name is Nisa) to create our line of upcycled fashion and accessories.

These have consistently been some of our bestselling items.

Here is a Happy New Year message from the founder of Pawnstar:

Dear Friends,

People will remember 2016 – mostly because it was so bizarre. For Pawnstar, it was also a memorable year. Our founding was in 2015, but 2016 saw us become an entity that is a bit more substantial. Most of our customers and consigners came to us over the last year, we brought together a wonderful team of staff, we joined with young designers to create an exciting upcycling program, and we opened a physical location in the Clement Apartments in Shanghai’s Former French Concession that was just named TimeOut’s New Shop of the Year. We also laid the groundwork for exciting partnerships that we hope will make 2017 the year in which Pawnstar and the concept of secondhand fashion in China start to go bigger.

Pawnstar was also recently featured in Temper Magazine, a website by Elsbeth van Paridon.

Pawnstar founder Jane Jia was interviewed by Simon Young on the Episode 2 of the Digital China Podcast, which is a new project that serves as a supplement to Young’s marketing agency and The Red Circle, which is a sort of network for people doing business in China.  Jane introduces the project and the space at the Clement deep in the Former French Concession, which Young describes as “one of the most beautiful places around.”

Jane explains the development of secondhand in China from the days of her youth when items were always passed between neighbors and friends, through the era of obsession with the shiniest and newest, down to the present when hip youngsters are once again interested in pre-loved fashion. Jane’s piece of advise to foreign brands entering the China  market is “You are popular back home for a reason. Stick to your brand identity and do what they are best at.  Don’t give up your core values.”

She also tells the charming story of how she started getting customers by writing poetry on her wechat and that these are still her most loyal customers.  She says her favorite brands are Hermès and Mandarin Oriental, because both are “family-owned brands that do what they want to do and it comes from the heart”.