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No. 223 is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Magazine, China’s answer to hyper cool art fashion magazines like ID and Wallpaper. Something of a collector’s item, Too Magazine only came out once. Now No. 223 has opened funky menswear boutique Dandy Dandy in 3.3. He also releases photography books.
What an ordinary but nice Beijing doorway! The waist-length blue coat is especially nice. Despite appearances, she is, however, a hard-edged Public Relations consultant working for an American corporate behemoth.
Several years back, some guys, probably in London and Milan, decided casual white shoes match everything. Maybe I am wrong and white shoes have been popular all along. It does seem they have been growing rapidly in popularity here in China. While not a bad trend, white shoes don’t seem ideal for Beijing, where all stylish men wear them. The overall outfit successfully mixes items that seemed too distinctive to be mixed. He is wearing a double-breasted fashiony peacoat over what appears to be a double-breasted waistcoat.
For some foreigners, an annoying characteristic of Chinese fashion sense in
couples is the tendency to dress identically. Designers and partners in
Zebra-hunting, Fangfang and Ken, should be more than excused because they have taken the concept of coordinated outfits to a more advanced level, both in location and time period.
This isn’t the most atrocious example of couples coordinating their outfits. Wearing the same scarf is much less offensive than matching jumpsuits. Couples take note.
In one of the best outfits yet to appear on Stylites, Joy runs JMAX, a Nanluoguxiang boutique offering jewelery made from wool, leather, wood and feathers. The little black cat in her arms, Sami is a couple months old and brings good luck to the shop.
Formerly a fashion designer, Kevin now devotes himself to developing fashion brands in the China market through consulting. His main efforts are focused on educating on marketing and branding, creating a hip image essential in competing with well established Western brands.
Sometimes the key to style is appropriateness; not elegance or fashion. This look is perfect for walking through winter in the hutongs. At the same time, Alice Liu looks like she just walked out of a Salvation Army with the most unique items she could dig up: a suede toggle coat and pleated jeans. A Beijinger, she has spent much of her life in London and has now returned to her hometown to make her fortune as a writer and cat breeder. In order to achieve the former, she has just taken a position at Danwei, the top English site covering Chinese media and urban life. For the latter, she is now allowing her non-spade female cat roam free in the environs of Nanluoguxiang. Interestingly, this cat herself is the product of a hutong romance between stray cats.
Trousers are over-rated. Their dominance in the West is only since the 16th century. In China, trousers were reserved for the cavalry until the 20th. This constricting garment was favored by the ancient Persians who mocked the Greeks for being effeminate skirt wearers. Scottish historian, A. R. Burn remarked that this was “not the last time trouser-wearing men made that mistake about kilt-wearing men.” In modern times, many argue that skirts make sense for the male anatomy, if not for a Beijing winter.
The man-skirts this past Saturday bore little resemblance to Greek uniforms worn at Thermopylae or even Chaeronea. This highlander by the name of Jin could use a few more pleats in his kilt; the feeling of voluminous scottish wool swaying in the Beijing wind must be satisfying and the heaviness of the fabric prevents any Marilyn Monroe moments. Otherwise, the completeness of this outfit is inspiring and apparently it is all “Made in Scotland” and lent by someone from a clan that lays claim to this particular tartan.Designer Ivy is very cute too. Perhaps I had had a bit much to drink, because I assumed she was French. Her having just arrived back from Paris the day before saved me from total foolishness.
Next year, Stylites will organize a competition: Who has the best outfit for the holiday season? This year, this outift would be the winner. Celebrity make-up artist and stylist Li Dongtian or Tony Li, founder of nationwide Tony Studio, is sporting a Comme des Garçons (or Yohji? The skirt seems Comme) cloak. Actually I’m not sure if “cloak” is the right word as capes and cloaks are supposed to be sleeveless and this one does seem to have sleeve holes. The green stockings are masterful. On the first weekend of December, he set the bar pretty high. Are his outfits going to get better and better over the next twelve or so days? Can I get his itinerary?
Even curmudgeons who have been doubting the skirt thing must confess that this outift is original and sophisticated. The skirt on designer Xander Zhou appears to be Viktor and Rolf. Find more about Xander at Time Out and CRI.Engliish.com.
Almost no element of this outfit is strictly conventional, which makes it even more notable that the look works well. Perhaps I’m going out on a limb by lavishing praise here and maybe this fellow has just copied a runway look that I failed to notice. I do find it to be a fresh but pleasing look.
As for skirts in general, most men may not be able to achieve the pleasing results that we see here. These gentlemen are clearly addicted to fashion, have the resources needed to procure skirts expressly designed to look good on men, jobs without conventional restrictions on dress, and are slim enough to worry little about showing off their legs. The average Zhou or Joe or Nels might be awkward in these styles. Still, I hope more men choose to wear skirts in the future.
This Yves Saint Laurent motorcycle jacket from the fall/winter ’08 collection is quite a remarkable piece and I am envious of Richard, who I meet often meet at fashion parties. This jacket and several of the other ones from this collection dispense with almost every bit of construction. In a a felt-like stiff wool, this jacket is distinguished by its lack of any structuring, lining, or interfacing. It is just one layer of fabric with a minimal amount of stitching. This collection from Stefano Pilati, which used a video rather than a runway show, is my favorite from him.
Agu Anumudu is a freelance creative director who does events for China Doll Club. He was attending the Bogue event with Ai Wan, President, Founder and CEO of ChinaDoll Culture and Entertainment. Ai Wan is an actress who was described as a “leader of the new rising creative class in Beijing” by Outlook Magazine. Having arrived recently from Nigeria, Agu quickly got in with the right set.
Jane and I seem to cross paths all the time, frequenting the same bars and parties. She always wears a hat.
Paris correspondent for Madame Figardo, Xiang Sun, who has appeared here before looking a bit Lagerfeld-like, explained that today he was dressed more in his usual style. Dressing like Lagerfeld is intended partially as flattery of a designer and friend whom he greatly admires. He also has a lot of Lagerfeld items that he received as gifts.
A bit pharaonic, this collar was created by its wearer, Sebastian Linack. An architect, he occasionally turns his skills to designing collars. The black strips can also be crossed to form a sort of X over the neck.
The other night, I ran into Londoner Emilia again – this time on the streets of Sanlitun. I love the rubik’s cube necklace. She made it herself.
Canon should use Nanluoguxiang in its ads becaues every second person there has a RMB 20,000 DSLR, even those dressed not much better than migrant laborers. Were they to invest that money in their outfits, there would be much more for Stylites to photograph. This young fellow on the other hand, brings quite a magical flair to the the occupation. Mr. Wang is a rare photographer that actually cares about his own appearance in this quirky but certainly autumnal look. I wouldn’t have thought of an almost Keffiyeh type scarf with an argyle sweater, but he seems to be pulling it off. It is a mix of the Middle East and Europe perfected on a East Asian frame. This look may not rank as high fashion or even be particularly well-matched, but I did not see anything on its level of inventiveness three years ago.
This past weekend there were several parties thrown by fashion labels and stores. At the parties, I spent most of the time talking to friends, but I did take a couple pictures. Here are Fu Yuanyuan, creator of Marzipan, and Andrea Jacomelli, of Nestlé. Andrea is wearing a three-piece suit from Senli and Frye. The waistcoat is single-breasted with notch lapels. Andrea is heading to Singapore next week, after spending two years in Beijing. The suit is in a light-weight fabric, but I suspect he will be shedding the coat frequently. While she was a PR executive, Yuanyuan worked for two years on the Nestlé account, though this was the first time she met Andrea.
Hervé is the Head of the Visa section of the Embassy of Switzerland. His family left Catholic Bavaria for Switzerland during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) since they were Lutherans. Hervé retains a fondness for his family’s ancestral home and he picked up this lovely wool jacket there. Several of the guests at the party complemented him on his “Chinese style” jacket. There is a resemblance but it is difficult to find wool of this type in China.
This young lady from Reims was surprised that an American like me would not only have heard of her town but also know that it has a nice church.
Here is Tomasz wearing a jacket from Le Divan Studio, which just moved to a new home in Caochangdi. This was initially bad news for me. Aurelien and Tony, the creative directors, used to be my favorite neighbors when their studio was near my courtyard in the Deshengmen area of Central Beijing. The move was a good idea for them though. The new space is much bigger, providing much needed room for workshops and living quarters for their team.
In addition to several appearances on Stylites, Tony and Aurelian have been in more obscure street fashion blogs like the Sartorialist.
Slim black ties paired with a suit jacket and jeans as party wear are pretty tedious. Clearly many men believing donning such ties automatically moves them up several notches in hipness. This casual use of the tie seemed more interesting.
He is wearing a casual autumn ensemble that any guy can achieve. A tweed jacket, wool cardigan, Italian leather shoes is a bare minimum for looking good. Sadly, this kind of simple, well put together, look is more the exception than the rule.
