Cyrus is the PR director for Proctor and Gamble, here in Beijing. What a great name?
Tag: Sanlitun 三里屯 and Chaoyang District æœé˜³åŒº
Sanlitun has been Beijing’s main nightlife district for nearly as long as their has been nightlife in post-opening China. Over the years, the area has become more and more gentrified and sanitized. Sanlitun Village, Beijing’s first outdoor mall, with a huge number of shops ranging from Uniqlo to Reiss. The trendiest boutique hotel in the city, the Opposite House is also here. Sanlitun, the CBD, embassy quarter, and residences of most foreigners are in vast Chaoyang District.
At a Coffee Shop
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.
Outside Beauty Berry
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.
China Fashion Week Photographer
This photographer has been at quite a few of the shows at China Fashion Week SS ’10.
Festive Graphic Artist
Su Hang is a graphic designer who runs his a business with his wife, Mimi, in Beijing’s CBD. I met him at the opening dinner for a very chic new restaurant called Hanshe (汉èˆ) for which he did much of the design of promotional and other materials. Buying much of his wardrobe in Hong Kong, Su Hang normally dresses in a eye-catching manner.
Velvet jackets are fairly common, but one doesn’t encounter bow ties so frequently. It strikes me that that I should attempt to replicate this outfit for some of the upcoming holiday parties (that I am already hearing about).
Queen of City Life
What a rebellious outfit! I was pleased to encounter charming but irreverent Shanghaier Ding Ying (ä¸é¢–）the other day, after not seeing her for almost two years. She was the first editor from a major publication to profile me, not so long after Stylites started. Over a year after my profile appeared in the City Life section of Modern Weekly, Ding Ying suggested to her colleague Chen Pu that I might write a weekly column for them. I am especially proud of this, the only column that I write in Chinese.
After seven years at Modern Weekly, she is moving on next month to be features editor at a big fashion magazine. Maybe she will be the next Chinese female editor compared to Anna Wintour.
Funny that when googling, the first pic of her is with someone else who has been on Stylites.
Chic Pic Maker
I ran into my friend, photographer Anne Li – who has appeared here before – at the NOTCH (Nordic and Chinese arts) festival that just opened. Being a gentleman and a sophisticate, I immediately poured her some coca-cola in a champagne flute.
The press gift at NOTCH was the second best I have ever received: the collectible October 2009 Wallpaper* with its provocative Karl Lagerfeld cover. The best gift from an event I ever received was the full-sized bottles of Vidal Sassoon shampoo and conditioner received at the opening of Izzue in Sanlitun. I like swag I can use, as opposed to the multitude of passport picture holders and glasses frame liners one gets from the luxury brands.
Reading their comments in this Wallpaper*, Lagerfeld seems pretty arrogant and, despite all his brilliance and eccentricity, hollow in comparison to Philippe Starck.
Modern Kongming in the Rubble?
Fans don’t show up enough over the course of Beijing’s hot summers. Though http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang#mce_temp_url# wields a feather fan to alter the course of the wind and rains, this one immediately made me think of the famous strategist.
Mostly Red
I am sadly not in Beijing for the big day, but I happened to encounter a girl in the right color just before I left.
Chinese Teacher
This young student is studying to be a teacher of Chinese to foreigners. She hopes to move to the UK to do this.
Confucian High Schooler
Confucius said good government means the ruler acts as a ruler, the minister as a minister, the father as a father, and the son as a son. He might have added that all rulers should be stylish rulers, fathers stylish fathers, etc. This high school student from Hong Kong, in Beijing for several years, does not try to dress like anything other than a student but does an original, chic, take on student style. The look is also most Beijingy.
Boyz at Vogue Night Out
Xander Zhou (周翔宇) was one of a huge crowd of celebrities attending fashion for Anna Wintour’s Fashion’s Night Out. All eyes have been on this young fashion designer since he guest edited the August “Gay China” issue of media sorceress Hong Huang’s (洪晃) fashion magazine “ILOOK†(more at Gayographic and China Hush). Though there have been many smaller gay-friendly publications opening and closing over the last decade, this was the first time a mainstream magazine made nature’s bachelors and their role in fashion the focus of an issue. I met Xander last at a fabric store in Muxiyuan.
Also at the Vogue party in the basement of the World Trade Center was Beijing brit-rock band Super VC (at a Burberry event). There were huge crowds and droves of celebrities making more stylites photos during the after-party up at Aria difficult.
An Enticing Duo
This is an interesting pair. This type of style is popular here in Beijing.
Millinery Among the Skyscrapers
Mother and daughter wear creations from Elisabeth Koch Millinery. With her studio, the place where the magic occurs, not five minutes from the Kerry Center, milliner Elisabeth stands out from her peers for her own attire and for the creativity of her designs. Born in the US of Dutch and Welsh parentage, Elisabeth has adored hats and distinctive dressing since girlhood. Slaving for a time in tedious white collar jobs, she finally has started making her quirky dreams into reality here in Beijing, after studying the art of hats making at Wombourne School of Millinery in the UK.
Inspiration comes from her surroundings here at the heart of the Celestial Empire and from the styles of the 1960 and 1970s. Every single hat is made entirely with her own, exquisitely manicured, hands. She has not been tempted to capitalize on the cheap labor yet. Though the majority of clients are of the foreign persuasion, those who order the greatest number of hats are locals including the nonconformist wives of industrialists, government officials and wily magnates. Her hats are borrowed by Trends’ Bazaar and other magazines for photo shoots every week. They add some spice to the looks that tend to be shoulders to toes in the usual brands.
Mon Cheri
In the field of polyestrous clones of Dior, Comme Des Garcons, Vivienne Westwood and other “big in China” designer names that is 3.3, seeing something with its own unique brand is always stimulating. Cecaa (éœäº®), 24, has a shop selling a brand with the saccharine name “Mon Cheri” in shop number 2008.
The name refers to clothing being his most adored object as he grew up. He was a shy boy and clothing was an escape and an chance to be creative. A goal of his brand is helping clients find clothing that will be adored and soon have its own story. From Beijing, his childhood was spent in a military household. Mother approves of neither his style of dress nor his chosen career.
Favorite designers are Coco Chanel, Hedi Slimange, Anne Demuelemeester, Raf Simons, and Yves Saint Laurent