Fashion Week

Any time I travel, I always take notice of what people wear. Fashion is an excellent representation and states a lot about the culture of an area. For example, Street wear is very popular in Shanghai, and despite there being hundreds of Chinese fashion designers, people prefer to wear American and European designer brands. Supreme, Off-White and Balenciaga are a few of the most common brands worn here. While these are popular in the U.S., they are nowhere near as big as in Shanghai. Regardless of income, the people here seem to be well dressed and have a pretty decent grasp on style and fashion.

This week, Shanghai hosted Shanghai Fashion Week, complete with runway shows and a trade show for industry professionals. One of my roommates and I attempted to get tickets to a runway show (we had no preference) but despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to make any progress. We even sent emails saying that we were journalists (My roommate wrote for a Journal in Buenos Aires for a few months and I have written for a food blog) who wanted to cover Fashion Week (We were actually planning on writing an article). We had almost given up hope until we found out that we had a connection who could get into an official fashion week after-party on Friday night. We thought we had finally made it.

In our minds, we were going to mingle with fashion professionals who would help us create a diverse network. As such, we needed to look our best, and so we set off to the South Bund Fabric Market. We set out with the goal of getting well-tailored, bespoke suits in slightly less common fabrics. We had done some research and knew which stall to go to to get suits made and went into the experience feeling pretty confident. We showed up at Kate&Kevin and explained our situation to Kate. She told us that despite our short timeframe (3 days), she could get two suits and two shirts tailored and even include a fitting. We were surprised, but she was incredibly nice and just seemed accommodating. Due to this, we ordered suits. I ordered a lightweight olive-green two-piece suit and my roommate got a heavier wool purplish-brown suit. Kate took around 15 different measurements and told us that we could return on Friday morning for a fitting.

On Friday morning, my roommate and I made the hour long trek to the fabric market to do a fitting for our suits. We showed up early and were told that our suits would not be ready until the afternoon, but that they could do any alterations that were needed in time. This seemed sketchy, but we went with it and planned to return that afternoon. When we returned, our suits were ready for us, which was a relief. We tried them on and they seemed a little baggy, but nonetheless, weren’t too bad. In a hurry to get to the party, we took them without hesitation. This would turn out to be somewhat of a mistake.

Upon getting home and changing, I realized that my suit was not at all what I thought it was. The legs of my pants were different lengths. The body of the suit looked like it was made for someone about 40 pounds heavier than me. To top it off, there was a tear in the seam of my pants. This was not at all what I was expecting and definitely took away a lot of the excitement that I had had for the evening. Regardless, we had a party to attend and so we persevered, dressed in somewhat fitting suits and average confidence.
            When we arrived at the Fashion Week party, we were overwhelmed to see how many people were waiting to get in. I was expecting it to be a rather low-key event with people who were mostly older than myself. This is not at all what I got. It turns out that the event was simply a publicity stunt for fashion week and its sponsors. I recognized several of the people who were waiting to get in, mostly from other nightlife events or classes, and quickly became aware of what was going on. The event was simply a way to showcase a bunch of foreigners at an event. The party ended up being less than 5% Chinese and did not represent Chinese culture or fashion at all. I was rather annoyed, and it was a perfect representation of Chinese fashion culture. Both this party and fashion in general are full of western influences, rather than embracing the rich history of design and fashion that China has.