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chinafashionbloggers.com

The site has gone through a nice re-design and I am now anticipating a fun re-launch party.  If you haven’t checked before, chinafashionbloggers.com is a site that agglomerates all of the English language blogs that focus on China.  The creator, Timothy Parent, has been a star on this scene for quite a while and hats off to him for persevering in providing this resource.  It seems that in its new guise, there will be an additional focus on design and lifestyle resources, which reflects the current direction of the market.

Great to see my own profile there as well.

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Erdos Prints

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Erdos – usually quite a dowdy sort of label the one sees in those older luxury malls that appeal to an older, less sophisticated demographic and in second-tier cities –  has really changed its image quite a bit.  They have been using foreign designers and hypermodel Liu Wen as a brand face, so things are coming along quite a bit.  The prints for this Spring’s collection were especially compelling as you can see in these images.

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Mark Werts on Showroom Shanghai

Mark Werts

Mark Werts, the founder of American Rag Cie, one of the most interesting multi-brand retailers in the world, founded in Los Angeles in 1984, visited Shanghai recently and attended Showroom Shanghai (时堂）, a rising trade fair in that city. Stylites works quite a bit with The HUB, a Hong Kong-based trade fair, but there are several events somewhat like this rising in the region to try to capture the boom in local designers, the rise of multi-brand stores, and the increasing appetite of local customers for small and medium sized foreign brands. Another interesting fair in Shanghai that is also gaining in strength is On Time, organized by Thomas Thompson and others.

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Juma Studio @ FSBJ

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‘Journey’ by Juma Studio opens at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing next week.

For the last few months we have been working on a program of pop-up shops at the hotel that I believe has the potential to remake the retail landscape here in China.

With space at shopping centers in China’s top cities difficult to come by for multi-brand stores and smaller designers and traffic far too low on streets, luxury hotels are an interesting alternative for independent players. A regular flow of high-end customers, premium locations, a tendency on the Mainland toward very large lobbies and the need of these hotels for fresh content all combine to offer a very attractive environment for independent players in fashion. These types of shopping experiences have been seen at hotels in the West but they are more important in China, given the size and speed of development of the market. Niche retailers like Wuhao or a small, start-up, brand like Juma can get their foothold in this market via this kind of event.

Here’s an interesting article from the Jing Daily on the subject.

Click below to see some of the rudimentary mood boards that I created.

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The HUB Breaks Through

The HUB 2

The HUB has always had great exhibitors including well-known names like Naked and Famous, Chester Barrie, Evisu, Barbour, and Private V.C. White as well as countless niche and designer brands.  What it lacked in previous editions was a great venue close to the center of the city and a large group of  buyers and other key fashion industry figures from the Mainland.  With the China Fashion Forum and other top groups from the Mainland participating this time, The HUB really did feel like it was the center of the fashion industry action here.

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The HUB, Edition 2

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I thought I would just recap some of the highlights of The HUB, edition two.  Orders surged as multi-brand channels gained traction in Greater China with initiatives like the Multi-label Alliance and the Greenhouse. This time, The HUB attracted a wider range and higher quality of buyers with budgets to buy as well as major distributors and other key figures in the fashion industry from China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and beyond. Visitor numbers were similar to The HUB of August 28-30, but these attendees were a more relevant and business-focused group, according to accounts of exhibitors. The exhibitors themselves remained a well-curated assembly from across North America, Europe, and Asia including contemporary fashion, heritage brands, cutting-edge designers, denim and street wear.

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The HUB – Next Week

Can Hong Kong Compete with Paris, Milan and New York?

The HUB believes so.  There will be a good number of rather fashion-forward designers showing there this year including S.Nine, Bracher Emdem, Haizhen Wang, Juma Studio, and my friend Zhang Chi, to name a few.  The trade fair is next week from Feb. 25 to 27.  Zhang Chi will also host an exclusive dinner at the Upper House; Susanna Soo’s label, S.Nine, will stage a catwalk show at The Upper House sure to feature a gaggle of Hong Kong’s “It” girls in the front row; Matthew Williamson is jetting out in early March to put on a unique retrospective of his most seminal creations at the British Consulate arranged by The HUB.  Peter and Richard, the founders of The HUB, believe they are ensuring that Hong Kong will become the center of fashion for Asia.

Fashionistas, designers, buyers, retail giants, and around 100 hot fashion labels from around the world will converge on Hong Kong between February 25 and 27 for three days of buying product, attending retail seminars, making big licensing deals, seeing fashion shows, and partying. The HUB, Asia’s leading branded trade fair, happening for the second time, ups the ante by introducing the sort of glamorous fashion events usually associated with New York, Paris and Milan. Says The Hub co-founder Peter Caplowe: “We are not getting ahead of ourselves and realise how far we have to go to match the world’s great fashion weeks but it was always our intention to make The Hub Asia’s most important fashion event and, with Novomania of Shanghai cancelled, Tokyo Fashion Week in continued decline and the less said about the HKTDC’s woeful Hong Kong Fashion Week the better, there is an opening and we are on track to deliver.”

The commitment of The HUB to exciting new designers is underscored by the unveiling of the Greenhouse, a new section that aims to help young talent grow. Famed for his extravagant shows and parties in Beijing, Zhang Chi frontlines. About joining The HUB for the first time, he says “The HUB is a chance for me to gain exposure and get to know buyers from across Asia and beyond. I see being at the Greenhouse as a step in getting the same buzz outside of China that I get inside. It’s great that young designers like myself can have this platform.”

Other young Mainland designers include V-Major, Frank Beat by Mao Xinzhi, and Unmentioned by Li Ling, but participants come from far beyond China. Print masters Juma Studio, London Fashion Week standout Haizhen Wang, local Hong Kong designer Susanna Soo showcases her new RTW collection, New Zealand Jewelry maker Violet Darkling, Swedish eyewear makers Dienastie, and Bracher Emdem – London-based creators of accessories and bags sported by the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna – are just some of the names from all across the world.

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Why the Gas Mask?

Beijing Designer Zhang Chi's Logo is the Gas Mask

Beyond using them in all of his designs, Zhang Chi sometimes wears real gas masks.  He thought it would be pushing it a bit too far – too demanding of attention – if he wore one to a party, but he does sometimes when he walks around the street.  Of course that’s the whole point.  You need a gas mask when walking around the streets of Beijing.  Zhang Chi is about as Beijing as they come, from the way he talks to his craze for automobiles.  Lamborghini has sponsored his fashion shows, Land Rover gives him a free lime green vehicle to scoot around town in, and Lexus just sponsored his trip to New York Fashion Week.  Love of cards aside, he knows very well that his hometown may be the most dystopian major capital.  From the constant and overpowering smog to the ever-widening wealth disparity, Zhang Chi acknowledges the dark side of China’s Imperial City in his work.

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Zhang Chi’s Studio

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For me, Zhang Chi is intensely interesting.  He has thrown bigger fashion shows than any I have been to.  These are massive, imperial-scale events with over a thousand people at major art galleries like UCCA and D-Park in Beijing.  His personality is extremely outgoing and he has shown an ability to attract sponsors like no other.  Martell has been supporting him for over five years and car companies like Land Rover and Lexus flock to sponsor him.  He is the most outstanding example of the way corporations and the media get behind Chinese designers long before they have actually become commercially viable.  I am not sure that he really is making money yet, but he is already a big name here in Beijing.  It’s a very massive, awesome Beijing way of doing things.
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Nick Wooster, in NYC

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I had the pleasure of with the fashion industry’s leading creative dynamo and style influencer Nickelson Wooster having coffee at The Hotel Elysée in Midtown. Nick, who has worked as a buyer for Bergdorf Goodman, Barney’s, Neiman Marcus and other leading department stores, had solid advice useful for men everywhere. One perfectly tailored medium gray suit, a blue and white shirt, some ties, and British-made black and brown oxfords are enough to get most men through the year. Nick has done some fun collaborations with brands from United Arrows to Orlebar Brown. I am hoping we can find a Chinese brand with which he could partner. My wife, Jane, who was also at the meeting, had these reflections:

”配饰是点睛之笔”

“如果你有一些简单的衬衫，一套中灰色的西装，那么只需要搭配各种领带，就可以每天都有型，任何人都可以用100美金以下的消费做到有型有款”。 当下已经50多岁的Nick在三年前突然蹿红网络，他说自己原本以为超过40岁，再从事时尚行业会很难，没想到网络的发展让他在去参加展会工作的时候成为镜头的焦点。如今在国内，从大牌纸媒，网络媒体到微信朋友圈中，都流传着多套Nick在各大展会亮相的照片集锦，还有冠有比如“最会穿衣的男人”等美名Nick特辑。但见到Nick本人让人高兴的并非是见识了时尚的炫目，而是再一次印证了“拒绝即是优雅”的聪明的时尚规则。“拒绝即是优雅”，不仅是都市人在眼花缭乱的选择中节约生活成本的方式，也是对环保做举手之劳贡献的一种途径。Senli&Frye挑选了少量知名品牌领带与袜子精品，在春节期间以大幅低于市场价的优惠答谢我们的朋友们。