Another young magazine editor.
Tag: Magazine Editors æ‚志编辑
These young urbanites know fashion but work toward their own style which is influenced by their more international, sophisticated outlook.
White, Blacks and Coordinated Reds
The look is taut and professional but langorous, graceful but meticulous. I like the peaked lapel sport coat with sleeves rolled up on this editor at a very well-known fashion magazine.
A Top for Real Men
I’m surprisingly fond of this fashion magazine editor’s look. The hat and rolled up trouser legs are rather trendy, but the see-through sweater and pink belt peeping out show some real verve. I also like the spectacles.
Dandy Journalist
Tomasz appears again on Stylites. I would recommend you chat with him in person next time you see him.
LEON Magazine Fills a Gap
The Chinese version of Japan’s LEON magazine is now available throughout the country under the title Nanren Fengshang (男人风尚). Ni Ya (倪亚) is Style Director for LEON, which he says will offer a functional approach aimed at teaching men how to dress their best while expressing personal style. This approach to fashion magazines is characteristically Japanese, in contrast to the abstract, slightly vague, representation of style that appears in Western fashion publications. Most men’s publications targeting Chinese men have adopted the latter approach.
Ni believes the main difference between Chinese and foreign fashion labels is that the former are more geared towards mass taste, while foreign labels focus on specific demographics. China Fashion Week was not an attraction. He explains that the labels present lack unique voices. His favourite fashion label is Phillip Lim.
Photo: Anne Li
“China’s Françoise Sagan”
From Heilongjiang Province, Niu Mingyu (牛明昱), 27, has been described by French friends as China’s Françoise Sagan. His life is far more adventurous and debaucherous than hers was, he says. In addition to novellas, he writes regularly about beauty, culture, and lifestyle for Trends’ L’Officiel, Rayli, New Weekly, and a range of other publications. Last month, he wrote eighty-thousand characters.
Mr. Niu also works full-time as an editor at China Cosmetics (ä¸å›½ç¾Žå®¹æ—¶å°šç”»æŠ¥), a recently founded bimonthly magazine that is an offshoot of ten year old China Beauty (ä¸å›½ç¾Žå®¹æ—¶å°šæŠ¥) magazine and claims a circulation of 170,000. These are part of the media group founded by one Zhang Xiaomei, who is also a CPPCC National Committee member and keeps a blog.
His jacket is from Croquis, the male line that is part of Hangzhou-based JNBY, one of China’s most successful brands that was formed completely locally.
The Value of Chinese Art
Outside of the Beijing Center for the Arts in Qianmen’s Legation Quarter (read more at the IHT), I met Lu Wei (陆薇）, the “Responsible Editor” at Art Value, a new art magazine established in cooperation with the Art Research Analysis Center of Central Academy of Fine Art. We had both just seen the opening of avant-garde artist Gu Dexin works that included a three story high transparent pillar filled with thousands of pig hearts, which, incidentally, had leaked small amounts of blood on the basement of the gallery.
So what is the value of Chinese art these days? Brian Wallace of Red Gate Gallery tells NPR that values have dropped by over fifty percent, on average. It could be a great time to stock up. Chinese art might be going back to being for its own sake.
Again, Tiny Beijing
As I just mentioned, Beijing is huge and tiny. There are hordes, but the people that matter are a tiny minority. In other cities like New York, people say the same thing, but I don’t think it is nearly as true there. New Yorkers have an attitude and a very evident life-force and they often use it to wallop passersby. They want you to know how special and incredible they are. The vast majority of New Yorkers are economic, social, cultural, and even political actors. They buy lattes and crave Prada, have love affairs, go to see bands perform, and vote or at least have impassioned stances on the issues of the day. They have discretionary income; on them, advertising dollars are not wasted. Their parents probably already own a house somewhere.
The recession may have changed this a bit and clearly there are many in New York who do not fit into this happy meritocratic elite. A huge number of the faces one sees remain still bold and distinctive. In Beijing, this group is small, as it is in other US cities. Most people remain part of the support crew. The people actually drinking the wine (and not just to seal a business relationship) are a small percentage of the population.
All this to say that I constantly run into familiar faces within this small group. Yesterday, I ran into journalist and editor, Edward, first on Nanluoguxiang and then at Mesh, in Sanlitun, around nine. He was looking cute in his fancy the bow-tie.
Men at Diesel Spring Preview
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.
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.
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.
Yoho Editor
I just ran into Edie Bao a second time. This time it was in Sanlitun and we got lunch. I met her last year at a Comme des Garçons had a photography exhibit. Then, she was working as an editor at the mainland version of Milk magazine, a Hong Kong publication aimed at subculturish youth. Now Edie is working for Yoho, a mainland publication for fashion-conscious hipsters.
Fashionista, Photographer, and Editor
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.
Englishman in Beijing
Most locals can’t hear from his accent that Olli is an Englishman in Beijing. Whatever the nationality with which he contends, his approach has been to suffer ignorance and silliness with a smile. After editing The Beijinger for a couple years, Olli just left Beijing for Jakarta. As a long-term supporter of Stylites, he will be missed here.
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.
Christian Dior Opening at Ullens Center
This fabulous Christian Dior exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art is a must-see, and I am rarely so positive. The designer’s beautiful creations from the 1940s and 1950s make it worth the price of admission, despite having to wade through the generally obnoxious of Galliano. The conception and design of the exhibition are innovative as well as entertaining. I’m just sorry that I had to rush through because I was on crutches. The narrow walkways that made me more concerned about keeping my footing than looking at the art.
This former model and present editor at Madame Figaro captures a style that one sees a great deal at fashion events and magazines here in China. There are quite a few recent runway looks mixed together here. There is no fear of an angular kind of drama The style is harsh but not macho, esoteric but not eccentric. He is a noble from the future.
This jacket that also seems distinctly futuristic is an original design by its wearer, a Belgian curator at the Ullens Center. It was a perfect choice for an exhibit that seeks to blend Western fashion with Eastern art. He also had on beautiful J. M. Weston shoes.
From London, Emilia is an intern at the Beijinger who just arrived in town. She hopes to do more in the field of writing about fashion. With every woman being so dolled-up and glittery at these events, it is always the simpler, more humble and cute styles like this that catch my eye. Or maybe I just find the vamps too intimidating.
My mission was again to photograph the best dressed men, but my state made accomplishing the mission difficult. A huge number of well dressed people escaped me. Events are just so tough. I also have to learn a lot more about flash photography. It is also hard to steal enough space to get full body shots. That said, fashion parties are really the best events in town. Events with free flow of champagne and all the guests trying to look their most fabulous are just so much better than the grinding tedium of typical nightlife.
Han in Dong
To make up for those times when there were so many men appearing on the blog, I have been focusing on the girls lately. Julia or Fan Fan is especially attractive. Beijing has droves of pretty and even beautiful girls like her, but very few attractive ones. Being attractive has more to do with spirit and taste than chromosomes.
Ethnic looks are usually irksome but this works, because of the pretty wearer, that it is head-to-toe and not just one random element, and the lack of overwhelming colors or patterns. Fashion editor of Audio Vision Magazine Fan Fan, from Tianjin, is a connoisseur of China’s ethnic minority cultures, including music and handicrafts. This outfit was custom-made for her by a Dong women with a shop at Panjiayuan.
A few weeks after meeting me on the street, Fan Fan interviewed me regarding Stylites. I will try to put a link to the article soon.
Hats at I.T. Gallery
Comme des Garçons had a photography exhibit at the I.T. Gallery. There were numerous fashionistas whose photos I could have taken, but my flash was being uncooperative again and there was also much distracting champagne. Edie Bao is a reporter for Milk Magazine, and she did name herself after the beauty of Warhol’s Factory. Like all the other galleries at 798, I.T. is in a former factory. Was Warhol’s Factory ever a real factory or was it just a large studio?
Rather appropriately, Charley Kan, National Creative Director and Managing Director for MEC China, is wearing a Comme des Garçons hat. He is in charge of a fashion PR company that is going to be especially busy in the run-up to the Olympics.