Expat shoppers today find more styles and sizes
By Angela Bao |
July 27, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AFTER living in Shanghai for three years, American expat Evan Eames still finds shopping here a struggle, especially when it comes to finding the right size and appropriate style.
"More often than not, I avoid shopping for clothes," says the freelance photographer and stand-up comedian.
In his first couple of years he had what he describes as a shopping "addiction," however, and "couldn't let a weekend go by without heading over to the fabric market and having something made."
Shopping is especially popular in Shanghai, quite the cultural moshpit of ultra-luxury, knock-offs, cheap, tacky clothes, as well as increasingly innovative fashion.
Streets are lined with shops selling everything from designer socks to pirated DVDs. Neon sings advertise huge seasonal sales and proffer "brand-name" goods at prices too good to be true.
The sheer amount of "stuff" can be exhilarating, exhausting and more than a little overwhelming. People who are relatively familiar with the city and its quirks can find shopping frustrating at times.
For the most part, Shanghai style differs drastically from what's typical in the United States and Europe. Women tend to dress on the ultra-girly, cutsy, short-short side, with lots of colors, frills, glitter and eclectic prints, frequently worn with high heels.
Don't forget the ubiquitous tight, short-short and getting-shorter and more provocative pants. Even some Western men say they see a lot more exposed flesh on the streets in Shanghai than in the West. Some critics call it "tacky, trashy and inappropriate."
Chinese-American Sarah Lin, from California, who is interning in Shanghai for the summer, says she loves the South Bund Fabric Market, but in terms of shopping, "it isn't quite diversified (in Shanghai) as I expected," she says.
"My friends introduced me to some great boutique shops, but they are expensive," Lin says. "The dress code here is confusing, sometimes I went to events that required formal, but people there wore T-shirts and shorts!"
Young fashionable men here in Shanghai, mainly in their 20s, favor a grungier, distressed look, often including torn jeans and graphic T-shirts.
Westerners with comparatively simpler tastes and generally larger sizes can find it difficult to shop. Some expats can't quite embrace the somewhat eccentric local styles.
"I want to look good," Eames says, "but at the same time, I have to remind myself that I constantly make fun of what people are wearing."
The situation is improving greatly, however, as more clothing stores are run by expats and people with Western experience and familiarity with Western tastes. With the influx of expats and foreign tourists and the increasing number of local fashion designers, the shopping scene has become considerably more Westerner-friendly.
Expats can always avoid the multitudes of small Chinese-style shops in favor of chain stores like H&M, GAP, Uniqlo, Marks & Spencer, Zara, Mango and others. There's always the South Bund Fabric Market where most visitors are foreign.
Shanghai fashion is fast developing its own distinctive flavor.
Many stores, while designed, curated and set up to resemble Western boutiques, offer home-grown goods shoppers are hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
The former French concession, in particular, is brimming with precisely the sort of appealing, independent boutiques geared toward Western tastes, while maintaining that unique Chinese tang.
Cairn Wu, creative director and head of business development at William the Beekeeper Boutique, has learned to balance the two worlds. The homey store on Fenyang Road carries local independent designers, including its own in-house brand, Kaileeni, and vintage clothes, a decidedly Western taste, since most Chinese don't like the idea of used clothing.
"We carry a range of sizes," says Wu, a native of Orange County, California. "We have one-size-fits-all for some items that look amazing on both a larger and smaller figure. As a stylist and merchandiser, I curate the clothing very carefully so we know these items will look beautiful on many different shapes and sizes."
Chinese tastes are becoming more discerning and the broadening range of shops offers both locals and expats a chance to embrace something new.
(Yao Minji contributed to this article.)
"More often than not, I avoid shopping for clothes," says the freelance photographer and stand-up comedian.
In his first couple of years he had what he describes as a shopping "addiction," however, and "couldn't let a weekend go by without heading over to the fabric market and having something made."
Shopping is especially popular in Shanghai, quite the cultural moshpit of ultra-luxury, knock-offs, cheap, tacky clothes, as well as increasingly innovative fashion.
Streets are lined with shops selling everything from designer socks to pirated DVDs. Neon sings advertise huge seasonal sales and proffer "brand-name" goods at prices too good to be true.
The sheer amount of "stuff" can be exhilarating, exhausting and more than a little overwhelming. People who are relatively familiar with the city and its quirks can find shopping frustrating at times.
For the most part, Shanghai style differs drastically from what's typical in the United States and Europe. Women tend to dress on the ultra-girly, cutsy, short-short side, with lots of colors, frills, glitter and eclectic prints, frequently worn with high heels.
Don't forget the ubiquitous tight, short-short and getting-shorter and more provocative pants. Even some Western men say they see a lot more exposed flesh on the streets in Shanghai than in the West. Some critics call it "tacky, trashy and inappropriate."
Chinese-American Sarah Lin, from California, who is interning in Shanghai for the summer, says she loves the South Bund Fabric Market, but in terms of shopping, "it isn't quite diversified (in Shanghai) as I expected," she says.
"My friends introduced me to some great boutique shops, but they are expensive," Lin says. "The dress code here is confusing, sometimes I went to events that required formal, but people there wore T-shirts and shorts!"
Young fashionable men here in Shanghai, mainly in their 20s, favor a grungier, distressed look, often including torn jeans and graphic T-shirts.
Westerners with comparatively simpler tastes and generally larger sizes can find it difficult to shop. Some expats can't quite embrace the somewhat eccentric local styles.
"I want to look good," Eames says, "but at the same time, I have to remind myself that I constantly make fun of what people are wearing."
The situation is improving greatly, however, as more clothing stores are run by expats and people with Western experience and familiarity with Western tastes. With the influx of expats and foreign tourists and the increasing number of local fashion designers, the shopping scene has become considerably more Westerner-friendly.
Expats can always avoid the multitudes of small Chinese-style shops in favor of chain stores like H&M, GAP, Uniqlo, Marks & Spencer, Zara, Mango and others. There's always the South Bund Fabric Market where most visitors are foreign.
Shanghai fashion is fast developing its own distinctive flavor.
Many stores, while designed, curated and set up to resemble Western boutiques, offer home-grown goods shoppers are hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
The former French concession, in particular, is brimming with precisely the sort of appealing, independent boutiques geared toward Western tastes, while maintaining that unique Chinese tang.
Cairn Wu, creative director and head of business development at William the Beekeeper Boutique, has learned to balance the two worlds. The homey store on Fenyang Road carries local independent designers, including its own in-house brand, Kaileeni, and vintage clothes, a decidedly Western taste, since most Chinese don't like the idea of used clothing.
"We carry a range of sizes," says Wu, a native of Orange County, California. "We have one-size-fits-all for some items that look amazing on both a larger and smaller figure. As a stylist and merchandiser, I curate the clothing very carefully so we know these items will look beautiful on many different shapes and sizes."
Chinese tastes are becoming more discerning and the broadening range of shops offers both locals and expats a chance to embrace something new.
(Yao Minji contributed to this article.)
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