Blog, Consultancy, Shop
I had the opportunity to see the showroom of Woopin, the Beijing design studio that organized one of the most attractive pop-ups that has appeared at the Four Seasons.  Their pop-up was in September and October last year and became one of the major destinations during Beijing Design Week.
Stylites presents Kee Atelier at Shanghai’s famous Kee Club on Huaihai Road.  This three day pop-up event will bring some of the top designers from China and beyond to what may be the most beautiful private club in Asia, which is set in twin 1920s grand stone villas, which are practically a palace.
The first event this weekend will pair Shanghai and Beijing based Yiwen Studio with Cerrito, a collection of vintage new oldstock jewelry from Rhode Island.
This installation at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing is particularly special for me because my father my father, Richard Frye, was a professor of Iranian history and I grew up surrounded by rugs at home. Â When my mother, Eden Naby, and her family immigrated to the United States they sold their land in Iran and used the money to buy rugs, which they shipped their new home. Â Some of these they sold, using the proceeds to purchase their first house in the Philadelphia. Â Others of these rugs are still with my family today.
This heritage made me especially happy to work with Zamani Collection to put together the pop-up that will be at the hotel for the rest of this month and early February.
Anyone critical of all the hoopla over Bowie’s death should consider that 60s and 70s rockstars were quite similar to Greek gods in terms of their lifestyle and the cults of personality. Bowie was and will always be the maximum in terms of decadence, style, creativity, and freedom from norms. It’s not surprising that with the passing of the top deity, all of the believers are experiencing a bit of disbelief.
Here are my selections for his top songs:
Prettiest Star
Life on Mars
Above is the inside of Wuhao’s Curio Box at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing. Â The Pop-up program at the hotel has received a great deal of publicity and praise over the last year.
The giant size of the lobby – something that I initially saw as a flaw in the hotel’s layout – has been turned into a great advantage that has made the hotel a focal point for the design and fashion crowds.  Major magazines agree.  More below.
Dejue, a super-high-end tailoring shop based in Beijing, also did a pop-up at the Four Seasons a while back. Â Here are the photos. Â They collaborated with Barker shoes from England.
Above is an image of a rather monumental event that De Jue did a few weeks later, mostly related to overcoats, inside the Imperial Lounge and on its balcony. Â Click below and scroll to the bottom for more images of this.
In association with 700Bike, Pawnstar has launched a vintage exhibition at Shanghai’s American Rag Cie flagship store at Crystal Galleria, near Jingan temple.
The idea here is that you can either rent clothing for the tweed run on Nov. 22 or buy the clothes outright.
See more pictures below.
After the success of the first Dutch Design pop-up at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing, they have returned once again.  Conceived of by shoe brand O’Quirey, the pop-up is once again staged in collaboration with Ubi Gallery and Studio Henny van Nistelrooy and will be hosted by the Four Seasons until November 29.
Not only does the pop-up have a lot more bikes than last time – these are special edition that was made for O’Quirey’s China business – but the opening party was attended by their highnesses King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, who were staying in the hotel at the time.  Click below to see more photos.
Here I am with Peter Caplowe on translating duty for the TV interviews at The HUB last week in Shanghai.
The HUB, Asia’s leading premium fashion trade fair, is coming to Shanghai for the first time next week (Oct. 13-15). American Rag will be hosting a party that is sure to be the best of Shanghai Fashion Week, which goes from . Most interestingly, my dear friend Gia Wang will be performing at this party. I first met Gia on Nanluoguxiang when I took a photo of her for Stylites. If you want to attend this party, please RSVP to brian@thehub.hk.
DF photography Ltd., Model: Felzing Nadya
In a notable  example of tech meeting fashion, Hong Kong designer Markus Fung Qihao has developed a garment that projects human emotions onto the wearer’s body as colors through the use of 3D printing and BCI technology. By utilizing an EEG device, the wearer can digitalize brainwaves into different signals and converts them into an array of colors simultaneously as the wearer shifts through different environments.
For Beijing Design Week, we have arranged something truly special at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing. Â Beijing design cooperative Woopin, under husband and wife team Jia Li and Gao Yin, have put together a nature-focused installation that celebrates sustainable design as well as natural materials.
There are over 20 designers, mostly local, featured in a modular pop-up that uses bamboo units that will be transferrable to future sites. Â More details on this brilliant project in future posts, but click more to see more photos.
For anyone who might be worried that the Chinese economy is slowing or that domestic consumption cannot being to take the place of exports or investment,  a visit to Yo’hood would be the perfect cure.  This was the third edition this massive event has the setup of the trade fair, but is really more consumer-oriented.  There may be no better venue  do you have a look at a wide swath of cool youth and all of the things that brands large and small are doing to attract their renminbi.
The organizing company, Yoho, started as a magazine focused on youth fashion and street fashion around ten years ago and was founded by Chao Liang, a native of Nanjing, who was just out of college at the time.  What has emerged in the last few years is a behemoth that is far more than just a media platform or a e-commerce site.  The Yoho  of today is a social and commercial phenomenon that is proving that street culture can become supremely popular for teens and 20 somethings in China today.
When I was leaving at around 2 PM, there were already a few thousand people in a line that stretched several hundred meters,  but according to exhibitors I spoke to, the lines were even bigger on Saturday.  Some said they went for over a kilometer.  Even when I was there, on Sunday morning, the crowds of youth in trucker hats and cleverly logoed tee-shirts, tattooed beauties, freebies, pop concerts and pumping hip-hop, collaborations of every type conceivable between brand, street artist, and celebrity, and still tons and tons of neoprene everywhere nearly gave me a seizure and I had to leave before I probably should have.
The Woopin pop-up just opened at the Four Seasons. Â This is what we are doing for Beijing Design Week. Â Go have a look at the real thing today!
My old friend Sam Lee (Li Mengxia-æŽåŸå¤) came by the American Rag store yesterday and took some photos.  He is the Director of Art Beijing.
Here are his weibo and a photo I took of him for Stylites the first time we met six years ago.