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From Hubei to the Rive Gauche?

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From Hubei, Liu Yiwen (刘伊雯) is a French language major at People’s University of China. She hopes to go into the hotel management business and visit Europe at some point. Interestingly, a designer friend has just mentioned to me that Parisians love wearing black and green.

Her outfit may not seem particularly startling, but is notable in both use of proportion and color. Also, college students hardly ever wear outfits that are simple and attractive. The goal is usually to throw as many odd pieces together as possible.

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“China’s Françoise Sagan”

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From Heilongjiang Province, Niu Mingyu (牛明昱), 27, has been described by French friends as China’s Françoise Sagan. His life is far more adventurous and debaucherous than hers was, he says. In addition to novellas, he writes regularly about beauty, culture, and lifestyle for Trends’ L’Officiel, Rayli, New Weekly, and a range of other publications. Last month, he wrote eighty-thousand characters.

Mr. Niu also works full-time as an editor at China Cosmetics (中国美容时尚画报), a recently founded bimonthly magazine that is an offshoot of ten year old China Beauty (中国美容时尚报) magazine and claims a circulation of 170,000. These are part of the media group founded by one Zhang Xiaomei, who is also a CPPCC National Committee member and keeps a blog.

His jacket is from Croquis, the male line that is part of Hangzhou-based JNBY, one of China’s most successful brands that was formed completely locally.

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Lady High Schooler

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Korean youngsters are fond of this type of ladylike style. I approve. In Beijing for six months so far, Korean Choi Ahrang attends international high school. Recently, we have seen more high schoolers: one from Austria and others from Beijing. Beijing boasts a wide selection of shops offering style from Korea, both of this more “youth elegance” type and of the more streetwear variety. Last year, I profiled a young lady who owns a boutique specializing in this type of Korean fashion as well as her employee. Prior to this, there has only been one actual Korean on Stylites.

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Except on the weekend, it’s pretty hard to find Chinese high school students outside of those horrible nylon uniforms that look like something that might be favored by Jersey mafiosas. Still, they do find ways to be a bit rebellious, usually with shoes. Until very recently, if a Chinese student dressed and made-up like the Korean one above and had her hair permed, they would probably be told off by the teacher and grounded by their parents. It would be taken as indisputable proof that they were pursuing relations the opposite sex.

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The Redcoats are Taking Beijing

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But they aren’t British this time and I think Poland could do with a conquest or two. Tomasz Sajewic is the Beijing correspondent for Polish National Radio. Here he is wearing the same coat that Le Divan designer Aurelien was wearing three posts back. The only difference is that Tomasz’s coat has buttons and in this light Tomasz’s looks more orange. Most of Tomasz’s scarves are custom-made of silk that he orders from Thailand. As it turns out, everyone I know seems to be in Thailand this week.

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The Value of Chinese Art

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Outside of the Beijing Center for the Arts in Qianmen’s Legation Quarter (read more at the IHT), I met Lu Wei (陆薇）, the “Responsible Editor” at Art Value, a new art magazine established in cooperation with the Art Research Analysis Center of Central Academy of Fine Art. We had both just seen the opening of avant-garde artist Gu Dexin works that included a three story high transparent pillar filled with thousands of pig hearts, which, incidentally, had leaked small amounts of blood on the basement of the gallery.

So what is the value of Chinese art these days? Brian Wallace of Red Gate Gallery tells NPR that values have dropped by over fifty percent, on average. It could be a great time to stock up. Chinese art might be going back to being for its own sake.

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Again, Tiny Beijing

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As I just mentioned, Beijing is huge and tiny. There are hordes, but the people that matter are a tiny minority. In other cities like New York, people say the same thing, but I don’t think it is nearly as true there. New Yorkers have an attitude and a very evident life-force and they often use it to wallop passersby. They want you to know how special and incredible they are. The vast majority of New Yorkers are economic, social, cultural, and even political actors. They buy lattes and crave Prada, have love affairs, go to see bands perform, and vote or at least have impassioned stances on the issues of the day. They have discretionary income; on them, advertising dollars are not wasted. Their parents probably already own a house somewhere.

The recession may have changed this a bit and clearly there are many in New York who do not fit into this happy meritocratic elite. A huge number of the faces one sees remain still bold and distinctive. In Beijing, this group is small, as it is in other US cities. Most people remain part of the support crew. The people actually drinking the wine (and not just to seal a business relationship) are a small percentage of the population.

All this to say that I constantly run into familiar faces within this small group. Yesterday, I ran into journalist and editor, Edward, first on Nanluoguxiang and then at Mesh, in Sanlitun, around nine. He was looking cute in his fancy the bow-tie.

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Le Divan: For Beijing’s Happy Few

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Here are Aurelien and Tony, the badboys of Le Divan studio in red and black. Their pieces, crafted right at their studio in Caochangdi, comes both prêt à porter and made-to-measure. The prêt à porter is in extremely limited quantities and would only fit a very blessed portion of the population. Contact them directly to schedule a viewing as their brand is not available at any shop.

Tony had been wearing a thick winter hat immediately before the shot. Also, considering Aurelien’s hair, I’m worried that there may not be a hairdresser out in Caochangdi. That would be a good excuse for any hair condition, since Caochangdi is about ten-thousand li from the center of the city. I didn’t hear the explanation for Tony’s shoes.

Aurelien has appeared on Stylites several times, wearing black and white and silk tweed. Tony has been here, too. Both also were on the Sartorialist.

Their work will be on display at next Thursday’s Uniform X party at Punk.

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From Hefei to Shibuya

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From Anhui, Rinko is a writer of pop music who is based here in Beijing. She is a lover of all things Japanese, from style to the language. She spent a half-year in Tokyo studying composition. Rinko is also the girlfriend of Ali Nosrati, founder and owner of the dowdy fourhundred. Next Thursday at Punk Bar in the basement of Opposite House, the dowdy fourhundred leather bags will be on display during a pretentious and decadent party that I am helping host.

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Beijing, Impossibly Small

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The China Post tells us the total population of the municipality of Beijing, including legal and illegal migrant workers, is 17 million, a figure cited by most others. The Embassy of the PRC in the USA frightens us a bit more with 20 million. Many of my acquaintances, aiming to drive the annoying foreigner from these teeming shores, claim 25 or even 30 million. When talking to friends back home, I round up to a neat 100 million. Any fewer would be a let down. This is China.

And yet, I have almost never in recent memory walked down Nanluoguxiang without encountering at least three people I know. In evenings, when I don’t really photograph, the number is even higher. At times, it approaches 100 million. In Sanlitun, it is also common for me to run into people I know, though there I often pretend I am someone different. Granted, in the other million hectares of this miasma of concrete devouring the North China plain at light speed, it would be almost shocking to see a familiar face.

I literally always run into photographer Xiao Yang. Though I do like him, our meetings have not been intentional after the first one. Xiao Yang was on his way back from photographing the famous British-born art collector and critic, Karen Smith, who resides and houses her myriad works of avant-garde modern Chinese art in a courtyard near Jingshan.

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Women Can be Heroes Too!

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This young tourist is a college student from Zhengzhou, Henan. Ku Ke （库珂）is studying to be a broadcasting host at Huanghe Science and Technology College, a private institution. She was on vacation for a week in Beijing with one of her friends. Most of her time was spent around Nanluoguxiang and Houhai.

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When Plastered tee-shirts first opened shop on Nanluoguxiang, I thought it would appeal mainly to foreign tourists looking for a hip gift. In fact, I directed several of my guests to the shop. The appeal that the brand, started by a Brit about two years ago, has had for Chinese tourists and locals is quite impressive. I have seen the shirts incorporated into very fashionable ensembles at at parties all over town.

So was it Mao that said “women can be heroes too” （女人也能当英雄）？

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Beijing’s Young, Hip, Couples

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These couples may not be at the cutting edge of style, but it’s always fun to find couples in which the two parts seem to go exceptionally well together. This is rarer than one might expect. The usual situation is a female concerned with fashion in an utterly girly way and usually carrying a designer handbag, accompanied by a horribly dowdy male with pleather shoes and an ill-fitting overcoat. These two study art design at Beijing Huijia University. The skull trend, investigated before, seems loath to die.
It’s a bit late, but I might even jump on the trend. Velvet slippers with the skull and crossbones have been one of the hottest items for at least two winters, as this article from the Spectator explains.

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And these two are recent graduates of university. They now operate an online fashion boutique. They are both born and raised in Beijing itself. This is surprisingly rare. Most people I encounter were born in the provinces and came here to work. She is indeed wearing a Yoo-hoo hoodie. This is in fact what convinced me to take the pic.

Some of my other favorite couples that have appeared on Stylites are the high school pair in which the guy was wearing M&M trousers, the two roommates wearing zebra pants and this pair of lovebirds. The last picture gives a great look at a wall along Nanluoguxiang from about eight months before the Olympics. Things are a lot cleaner now, though I adore the interesting patterns that the elements create on walls over the years.

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Oil, Econ and Rock ‘n’ Roll

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Mylène Chen is an economist at Shell China Exploration and Production Co. Ltd. On the side, she sings for a rock band. Only 22, she speaks English and French, perhaps taking her name from France’s answer to Madonna. It’s funny because, in one of their constant comparisons of China with “developed” countries, several Beijingers have remarked to me that youngsters here have far fewer hobbies than their counterparts in the West. They do face far more constraints in the forms of huge loads of schoolwork and pressure from family, but I think that many people I meet in Beijing do a pretty good job in surmounting these.

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Red Pants Alert!!

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There’s more to be scared of here than just the red trousers. I know there is an indie band here called Hedgehog, but this young rocker must be part of Porcupine.

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I hope that bag is real. Clearly her boyfriend is investing all of his fashion renminbi in her. Aside from the tedious sack, I do rather like her look and it’s a nice shade of red.

Slim red jeans can be a good alternative to the usual blue. Anyway, this was a small fraction of the people wearing red pants on Nanluoguxiang this past weekend. It is a good color to wear. It symbolizes good luck and happiness and is thought to ward off evil.

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Stylish High Schooler

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This is perhaps both the youngest and most stylish person in Beijing. I photograph many people whose styles I find very interesting. The way they look, the way they dress, and what they tell me can form an alluring little story. However, I rarely find styles that are truly inspirational as well as original. This is one of those cases. A tenth grader at the German Embassy School (Deutsche Botschaftsschule Peking), Vera, originally from Austria, has lived in Beijing for nearly ten years, since she was quite little.