When asked to describe his style he said "warm."
April 16, 2014 10:44 PM   Subscribe

Chinatown Sartorialist. "We saw them at Portsmouth Square and frantically made a beeline for them, both in a brown, earthy palette with matching cheetah sweaters and furry hats."
posted by spamandkimchi (27 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
Li Nan Ping looks great. He is the only man who may wear a fedora.
posted by univac at 11:54 PM on April 16, 2014 [3 favorites]


Love this. Normcore with an extra half-century of practice.
posted by univac at 11:58 PM on April 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


You Tian Wu with wise words: "When you’re young you don’t have to care about fashion. But when you’re old, you have to."

The accompanying photograph makes this priceless.
posted by fanipman at 12:03 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


My chinese mom dresses like this, and it totally makes me cringe :(
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 4:03 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wow, fantastic!

Normcore is a studious abnegation of fashion - which is itself fashion and the irony is just a form of masochistic pleasure. There's nothing normcore about this - it's a mix between "Well, guess I'm all out of fucks to give" and "This looks fun, it's on sale, let's wear it!"

The men and women depicted in TFA are all about the embrace of color, pattern, layer and texture in combinations that make their own rules as it goes along - outsider art in clothing. Reminds me of Macklemore's line - "I wear your grandad's clothes. I look incredible."
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:03 AM on April 17, 2014 [5 favorites]


Whenever a hipster item emerges, my mother comments "How is careless Chinese fashion in?" The thing is, after a person marries or reaches a certain age, the Chinese people feel it is no longer necessary to look attractive. It is more important to be neat and clean, not necessarily fashionable. My mother gives me the most unattractive articles of clothing as Christmas gifts because I am a mother and at "that age" where I should be clean and neat and not attractive…
posted by Yellow at 5:39 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


I think that guy's vest is more giraffe than cheetah, but they look fabulous individually and together. (Also, he makes me think of Monty Burns.)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:04 AM on April 17, 2014


I like this more than the regular Sartorialist.
posted by Lemmy Caution at 6:30 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


I like this more than the regular Sartorialist.
I know! I look at the Sartorialist all the time, but this is a lot more fun. I think the project is a little more Bill Cunningham than Scott Schuman.
posted by Drab_Parts at 6:56 AM on April 17, 2014


I love this! My favourite outfit is Yok Lan Chung's, but they all look great.

This article reminds me of my (non-Chinese) grandmother, who's been gone for about ten years now. I remember once when I was eleven, my mum and I were sorting through clothes in my bedroom. I found a pair of leggings in that bright purple, which I'd never worn, and we agreed that we could give them away, because who really wears that purple anyway?

There was a small cough behind us. We turned to see my gran, wearing a purple blouse, purple jumper, purple trousers and purple socks.

Sorry, it's got a bit dusty in here. These ladies and gentlemen are wonderful. Long may they rock their style!
posted by daisyk at 7:03 AM on April 17, 2014 [5 favorites]


Wow. An amazing exercise in finding awesome everywhere, if you only look. I actually have noticed the clothing sense of older folks in Chinatown, but always vaguely thought of it as "cheap stuff that's colorful". Looking at the clothes as unified outfits reveals a really distinct (and nifty) aesthetic.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 7:22 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


I have just gone on an adventure because of the links here and I am better for it.
Thank you.
posted by the_royal_we at 8:12 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I...don't know a thing about fashion, but I think the outfits look pretty terrible.
I mean, the people look nice and colorful is fun, but...I'm just not seeing it.

What am I missing?
posted by Omnomnom at 8:34 AM on April 17, 2014


I mean, the people look nice and colorful is fun, but...I'm just not seeing it.

Mostly, it's that the people look nice and colorful is fun.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:58 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I always thought The Sartorialist was just ripe for parody. This isn't quite what I had in mind but it's pretty sweet.
posted by Jess the Mess at 9:00 AM on April 17, 2014


I always thought The Sartorialist was just ripe for parody.

There is also The Catorialist, although it hasn't been updated in a few years.
posted by good in a vacuum at 9:33 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


I always thought The Sartorialist was just ripe for parody.

The Sarcastialist on twitter adds Scouse (people from Liverpool) captions.
posted by looeee at 10:07 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


How about The Sartre-orialist, and it's just pictures of neat, tweedy gentlemen wearing berets and smoking?
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:19 AM on April 17, 2014


I am going to being eyeing the elderly Asian ladies on the 9 a little more closely after this, checking how many shades of purple they have going on.
posted by gingerbeer at 10:42 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Great post!

I would wear this one (from the tumblr).

But how do you even websearch for that? I've tried combinations of print, matching, men's, shorts, shirt but no luck at all on Google shopping.
posted by surplus at 10:58 AM on April 17, 2014


You don't web search for it. You go Walmart or AJWright or whathaveyou and you look in the sale section.
posted by maryr at 11:41 AM on April 17, 2014


...And then you wait 30 years.
posted by maryr at 11:52 AM on April 17, 2014


I live in Chinatown and I love this. There's a million elderly care facilities in the neighborhood and I often do double takes at what some of these people are wearing, it's so great. It's like a sea of tiny, slow moving hipsters who are up at 6am every morning for Tai Chi. I hope I'm half as awesome as these people when I'm their age.
posted by bradbane at 11:54 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


I feel like these older Chinese folks in San Fransisco would have a lot to say, fashion-wise, with some of the older African-American folks here in New Orleans. I mean, just look at this photo of the beloved Uncle Lionel, may he rest in peace. Uncle Lionel is no longer with us, but his sartorial tradition is still very much alive. I love it.
posted by Scientist at 12:14 PM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


And then you wait 30 years.

That's what I was thinking. Pretty sure I saw Bobby Brown wearing something like that about 23 years ago, walking with Whitney Houston in Piedmont Park. Actually, it was paisley.

"Too cool for my blood," I thought. But now I am cool enough to wear that.
posted by surplus at 1:14 PM on April 17, 2014


Oh, hey. The dollar bills on Uncle Lionel's lapel are there because it is his birthday. That's a thing we do in New Orleans; people will pin dollar bills to you. I just realized that might need explaining.
posted by Scientist at 5:53 PM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Thanks for the explanation, Scientist. I learned something today!
posted by daisyk at 2:42 AM on April 18, 2014


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