Lanson Place HK
Hong Kong was a flash, a wink, yet a decade ago. I think I’ve grown up a lot during and since that trip back in January. I stayed at Lanson Place in Causeway bay, which provided a peaceful retreat from long adventurous days.
Hutong Streetwear 现代胡同
Love Pillowbook top, Stefanel blazer, Nike sweatpants, Nike sneakers.
Every time I’m walking into a hutong, I feel like I’m back playing Pokemon on my Gameboy Color and Ash is walking along those grassy areas and eek! a wild Caterpie appears. Except in a hutong, it’s more likely to be an elderly Beijinger shouting at you for being, well, you.
Anyway. What I’m trying to say is that you always end up finding something magical and unexpected. Even the faint whisks of toxic smog add some charm to these walkways. Yep, I just made pollution #romantic.
These photos were shot by Irene the other day outside her Hutong studio. I’m wearing a dudou top from her label Pillowbook. You can read more about it in the interview I did with her here. Also since I’m not allowed to wear anything but sneakers for the next half year because of my damsel-in-distress of an ankle, I might as well join the sneakerwear bandwagon officially and cop some new stuff. In the meantime, here are my Nike Air Forces, falling apart and all.
Back to School 开学了
A couple months ago, I teamed up with YETANG and big bro Nick to produce one of their monthly lookbooks. The theme was Back to School with a cool girl’s twist – complete with fake hot pink hair extensions – so we decided to shoot on my campus at Peking University.
Natasia Guo, founder of YETANG, and her team have been doing an incredible job bringing entrepreneurial startup vibes to Beijing. There are numerous well-curated online concept stores in the US/UK/Europe (Fab, LN-CC, Opening Ceremony) but in China this is a rarity. Besides Taobao – which is essentially a messy bomb dot com that sells everything you can imagine while inducing intense ADD and FOMO – there aren’t that many platforms selling well-designed products. YETANG fills that market gap and it’s exciting to see a fellow banana starting the waves. And yep, that was a hint towards the next victim for my #GIRLCRUSH interview series. Stay tuned yo.
Photographed by Victoria Jin | Styling by Zoe Zou | Makeup by Xiao Ming 晓明 | All clothes available on Yetang.com
#GIRLCRUSH: Irene Lu of Pillowbook
I first met Irene back in September, during Beijing Design Week. She was wearing a Mondrian-inspired silk dudou from her own Beijing-based brand, PILLOWBOOK, which remixes modern aesthetics into traditional Chinese lingerie styles.
Fast forward a couple of months and a healthy amount of online stalking, I’ve tackled her down for a new series called #GIRLCRUSH. This will spotlight girls I meet who have that special spark, who inspire endless talks about the future, who have a vision, and who are really really hardworking.
Before we start, a definition of ‘Pillowbook’ might be useful! A long long time ago in China, whenever a girl just got married and was expected to finally be with her husband – she’d be like 12 or 13 years old at this point – her mother would give her this mysterious Pillowbook ting, showing her what was to be done in bed to make her man happy. (Sorry for the noob description guys, but my mom reads my blog…) Anyway. Here goes!