by stylites -

Dapper Germans Understand Browns

82

To celebrate the recent spike in German viewers resulting from the recent Spiegel article, here are two stylish German businessmen I encountered in Sanlitun. Claus Vogel is Senior Consultant at MSM Mandarin Strategy Management Consulting GmbH, a China-focused firm based in Düsseldorf. He shows us how well brown and navy go together. The navy Hugo Boss three-piece is nice with not only the shoes but also the brown tie, far preferable to the usual bright stripyness.

72

His friend, mixing a utilitarin vest and high-quality casual wear, looks practical but stylish in earthtones. The suede monkstrap wholecuts are from Trickers and made in England.

by stylites -

Vintage PR Girl

img_48121

Yet another little girl wielding a huge camera on Nanluoguxiang…Not long ago, any type of digital camera was a status symbol, but I fear that soon, not taking photos will be elitist thing to do, though of course we have to pass through the lomography phase first. She wears a vintage leather jacket and works in Edelman, a PR firm founded in Chicago and one of the few that is not part of the massive WPP Group. Former PR account executives appearing on Stylites all worked in subsidiaries of that group. We’ve had a young punk from Weber-Shandwick, funky Sabrina (here again) of Ogilvy, a fellow in a long cardigan from tobacco-protecting Hill and Knowlton, cute Michelle from Burson Marsteller and crafty Yuanyuan, also at one time a BM employee.

Last October while walking out of Uniqlo on Broadway I happened to run into Wynn, grandson of BM founder Harold Burson. An aspiring fashion designer in NYC, he was wearing a jacket with shoulders that stretched about a foot beyond his natural ones in both directions. A year and a half earlier, I had the honor of hosting this young man on my couch here in Beijing.

The international firms in Beijing attract fashionable and worldly young people, women mostly. Excellent written and spoken English is a must for communicating effectively with the mostly foreign clients as is an ability to function effectively in the corporate world. A fine-tuned mastery of the corporate jargon is essential. The leveraging and picking of low-hanging fruit never ends in these offices. If you want to learn more about PR in Beijing, I suggest checking out Imagethief.

by stylites -

Xiao Yang, Photographer

201

Who should I run into on Gulou the other day but Xiaoyang, the photographer who formerly shot me for 1626? When he came over my place for the photoshoot last year, we finished a bottle of wine and had a great chat. At that point, he said that he didn’t have much in the way of work. Now, recession and all, he has a full-time job photographing for a magazine. Some of the pics he took of me are on the About Nels Frye and the Senli and Frye pages. This is a particular favorite.

by stylites -

Photography as Courtship

_mg_3916-3

This pretty student is well-dressed but not as eye-grabbing as most on this site. She was one of hundreds of young cuties being pursued by a young boy with a huge camera on that afternoon. I photographed her mostly because she illustrates a key characteristic of one of my favorite streets for photographing, Nanluoguxiang. Many of my friends often comment on the number of young people to be found hauling dramatically sized Canons and Nikons down this trendy alley, which should be a pedestrian-only street. Recent sociological research has shown that taking photos with these monstrous gadgets in hutongs is a key courting ritual for youngsters.

by stylites -

Ad Man and Mad Men

img_49321

John Charles is one of the creatives at Thompson Advertising, Inc here in Beijing. This look is really quite punk in a way. I always find it interesting when people can wear a single color and still make it interesting. The Thompson website says that they are “business people, helping business people take care of business…Yes, we are creative, but you couldn’t tell by looking. ” I must say that I can tell from looking at John Charles is creative.

Could one say the same of the characters from Mad Men, my current favorite TV series? Perhaps in their own day, this would be the case, though my sense is that the intention was to make their costumes seem stylishly conservative – even for their own day – rather than edgy. As it turns out, this past weekend, Yan Zhang, a successful and very interesting young entrepreneur here in Beijing, hosted a Mad Men Party. Here are some of the photos. Compare the contemporary Beijing ad man with modern interpretations of 1950s/60s Ad Men.

img_4965

Investment banker Mark is wearing a Senli and Frye suit. Julie is wearing a vintage 1960s dress and brooch.

img_4945

Ben is hitting the look pretty accurately. Of course, they rarely wore suits this dark in the show, but medium grays are surprisingly rare these days.

img_4983

Warren is manager of Punk, the club at Opposite House, currently Beijing’s hippest boutique hotel. Bill is working at the American Embassy and wearing a lovely suit from Saville Row that is in a shade quite like what one would have seen in Mad Men. I love the green knit tie.

img_4980

Yan Zhang is the man who made it all happen. Nice tie, great apartment.

img_4944

Nicholas had not seen the series, but he captured the spirit very well. The hair and glasses are perfect. The vintage suit made it seem a bit like a cross between Sterling and Pete Campbell while hunting in the English countryside.

by stylites -

Men at Diesel Spring Preview

_mg_4870

On the scene commenters at 798 praised Diesel for the creativity displayed in its new collection. I’m not a fan of the label, but I did find the hats entertaining.

img_4886

Will Wu is an editor at Trends Esquire, the flagship men’s magazine of giant Trends Group, China’s leading fashion and lifestyle magazine group that publishes Bazaar, Food and Wine, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and countless other publications with names familiar to Western readers. These magazines are entirely owned by the Trends Group and tend to use 50-90% original local content. They merely pay a licensing fee to Hearst and the other publishing groups in the US that own the rights to these publications. Readers should correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the situation is different with Condé Nast publications, Self and Vogue, which are actually part of the global corporate structure. Trends Esquire is expected to have a new competitor in the form of GQ, also from Condé Nast, later in 2009.

_mg_4874

I don’t know that I have ever seen such an unusually cut blazer. I haven’t decided whether or not run out and commission one in tweed today.

by stylites -

Black and Silver

_mg_38832

This was striking for the blending of subtle details with a striking simplicity, at least compared to the usual visual cacophony of the streets. The cut of the coat, by an independent designer based in Beijing, and the silver shoes are perfect.

by stylites -

dowdy fourhundred’s Ali

img_4838

Ali Nosrati just got a new dog that he named Ikea. Ali is from Sweden, so the name is appropriate. I met Ali at the opening party for a new Guess party last year. I was very interested in the high quality bags and wallets that his brand, dowdy fourhundred, is offering.

img_4849

This particularly dowdy fourhundred bag – is it a backpack or a messenger bag? – has apparently captured the imagination of Japanese buyers. At the moment, Senli and Frye is the exclusive distributor for the brand in China. Contact me if you would like further information.

Ali and his partner, Jesper, have also started a brand focused on canvas bags called TD. Immortali, focused on the needs of the modern man. I hope that Senli and Frye will be able to offer this line in the near future as well.

Also, check out Ali’s new bag blog, the Dowdy Story.

by stylites -

Nice Puffy Coat

img_48351

Several of my posts and articles rail against the shapeless puffy coats that too many women resort to during Beijing’s winters, which are really neither cold nor long these years. Though they may not provide as much warmth, my preference is always for wool coats. This is not to say that a puffy coat cannot look good, as this young lady proves.

by stylites -

Creative Proportions Flock Together

img_4027

This Danish pair initially may not look similar either physically or in terms of style. Still, they both seem interested in less conventional takes on proportions and the high-contrast but neutral color plate that seems generally favored by Scandinavians. One thing for certain is that smokers flock together, for better and worse.

by stylites -

Black, Navy, and Brown

22

You may not believe it after seeing this chic fellow, but various schools of thought assert that no two of these colors work together. This fellow is looking quite good with all three. Some believe black trousers cannot be worn with brown shoes and others say black can never be combined with navy except for navy trousers with black shoes. The contrast between these neutral colors is seen as too minimal. This finance student, back in Beijing from attending university in Australia, makes it work very well though. Perhaps those rules only apply to more formal attire. The navy trench coat is real Burberry and the suede monkstraps are apparently made in Italy. Most of his items are purchased abroad, where the price of quality is lower.

by stylites -

Intern Uniform

_mg_38951

People everywhere tend to dress in ways similar to their peers. In downtown Chicago, suburban soccer moms having a night out all wear high-waist baggy jeans and manly black leather jackets. Williamsburg hipsters
all wear tight but low-riding jeans and Converses (their counterparts in Beijing wear that too). In first-tier cities, white collar girls all have brand name handbags and an air of sophistication. Chengdu girls on internships
in Beijing go for colorful puffer vests, blues and greens, and plastic bows. All the bright colors and they still look quite harmonious.