The Sartorialist

ABC News followed me around the day I took these photos.

If you want to check out the webcast, click on this link ABC News Webcast

I love how the bag really brings a lot of color to this look.

Sorry I was out of touch for a few days in Beijing. I don’t think I have ever gone so long without posting – I was having withdrawal symptoms !

I really like Hong Kong but Beijing rocks!!!

Hong Kong really is just like New York in the feel of the city but Beijing really feels like China.

It was such a challenge to shoot on the street in a city where people not only don’t speak English but they don’t speak a language anywhere close to my language.

At least in Italy I can say a few words in English or bad italian and the subject basically understands but in China they had no idea what I wanted to do. Most people thought I wanted them to take a picture of me with my camera.

I have never been turned down for taking a photo in my life but I guess I understand the reasons.

Anyway, eventually I got the hang of it and got some really great images in both Hong Kong and Beijing that i will be posting this week. I also look forward to writing a little more to help explain what I was seeing.

Sorry not many (any) men’s photos on this trip, the men’s style ,in general, really lags behind the women’s. That will be my big challenge next time.

I guess it is safe to announce now that I will also start doing a page every month in Vogue China starting January or February.

This came up before I went on this trip. Of course I was excited to do the page but after this visit I am now double, extra excited about being involved with Vogue China.

I will talk more about the team at Lane Crawford later in the week but I want to thank them again for sponsoring this trip and taking such good care of me.

I would like to say I was shocked by just how good the Lane Crawford stores are but ,honestly, wasn’t that shocked because I knew they were good but I had no idea they were THAT good, that level of good.

I spent 15 years in sales and marketing dealing with department and specialty stores all around the world before i started this blog. During that time I developed very strong opinions about what makes a great store and what a great shopping experience should feel like. The fact that I don’t write about stores very often should tell you that ,more often than not, I am rarely excited by most shopping experiences but this trip to the Lane Crawford at IFC and Beijing was really inspiring.

More than the beautiful stores and great locations, I was really impressed by the edit of the buy for each designer and the depth of strong fashion pieces. No safe, watered-down presentation of Marni or Dries that often happens in stores solely driven by the bottom line and lacking in a clear long range vision.

Ok, I can feel I’m starting to get worked up here and I could write at length about this but I have to catch my plane back to New York. I will continue this thought later in the week.

Thanks Sarah!!

Really like the look but I really love her makeup

Young ladies here in hong Kong seem to be doing some really nice work with subtle white makeup

Notice how she has softened her eyebrows and made her lips very flat and matte with just the slightest use of white.

It is one of those things that you can’t really put your finger on when she walks by but you can just tell she is doing something interesting.

By the way she is not a stylist or designer – she works in an executive recruitment office.
Going to a “corporate job” with that kind of style is why the young ladies here are pretty cool.

Very well done

Couple of things
- This is minimalism at its best
narrow color scheme that uses texture and surface detail to deliver a huge impact

- matte sequins for day

- surprisingly sexy and yet not obvious

- love the extra short skirt with the extra long sleeve – great play on proportions

Again, I don’t think any of the individual items are very expensive it is all in the way she mixed the elements

Sorry for the delay of these Hong Kong posts.

I will be in Hong Kong & Beijing this week to attend the opening of the new Lane Crawford store in Beijing.

I have never been to Asia so this will be quite an adventure.

I will try to keep things on a regular schedule but just keep checking back because I have no idea what will happen.

I understand that blogspot might be blocked in Mainland China so I might have to email images to a friend for them to update etc. Either way, I will try very hard to create some images that capture the essence of this trip and what I see.

Thanks to Sarah Rutson (a Sartorialist regular) of Lane Crawford for making this happen.

Stay tuned

I think shots like this tell you almost as much about the subjects as a regular portrait

Good Blog Garance Dore

I’m really happy that I was able to work Shannon Hill (a multi-post Sartorialist Alum) into the November GQ. He gives a few tips on how a gentleman that is not “in the business” of fashion can help create his own personal style.

Shannon also gives a nice shout-out to fellow Sartorialist G. Bruce Boyer.

Finding gentlemen like this is what keeps me going….and on my toes.

So I stop this gentleman and say I would love to take a photo of him.

“Everyone wants to take a picture of me ” he replies.

When someone says something like that, you realize you are on a short leash and I could just as easily talk myself out of a photo.

I have found that the more honest I am with the subject, the more the subject appreciates it. They know they are characters.

So I say” I don’t doubt it, you’re quite the character.” That seemed to get him.

“Well, hurry up with it then, my wife is waiting” he says and then he stood completely still while I took five or six shots.

I always am a little in awe of someone that can stand so still when they are having their photo taken.

He didn’t check himself, he didn’t adjust anything, he didn’t ask to see the photo afterwards.

He basically just said – here I am, take your best shot.

I told this gentleman I was shooting for Vogue Nippon but as it turns out they wanted just womens images.

Sorry old chap

If you guessed Frieze Art Fair in London you are correct!

At the last moment I was asked by Vogue Nippon to cover the art fair in London.

I am really wipedout after show season but how does one pass up an opportunity to shoot for Vogue Nippon.

The issue should come out in January so I will keep you posted when it is available.

Back in New York tomorrow.

ps i found and corrected the problem that was pixelating the images the last few days. Thanks for the heads up Mitt!

For now on I am photoshopping all cigarettes in my photos to look like old school walkie-talkies

not becasue I don’t….crap….I’m falling into it again

lets get back to talking about style, ok?

I completely forgot that i also shot this young lady in Milan

This image is not meant to celebrate smoking,

I have already begun telling my daughters that smoking is a personal decision but not one they are allowed to make.

…and lets focus on the clothes this time

So I’m walking on a side street in Milan trying to get to another show and I hear this music almost blaring from somewhere nearby.

It just sounded so unusual for Milan that i just had to follow it. I have found when something seems unusual, it can usually lead to something special.

Anyway, I quickly find a church hosting “Accordion Jazz Night”, The church is packed with senior citizens dancing the early evening away.

Understand, these were not a lot of 70 year olds, these were a lot of 17 year olds trapped in 70 year old bodies.

I mean, i wish i could just say this to you because i will never be able to type or articulate in words what I saw.

Their faces…their joy….their youth

It was people moving past the psychical and living on the emotional.

There was joy, there was fun, there every look, every flirt, every expectation that you could see a a senior prom.

Immediately I was struck by this gentleman in the top image. He wasn’t so much dancing with this woman as he was speed walking, but he was there, he felt it, he was in the moment.

Eventually he came out to the foyer and took a rest right next to me and started talking to another gentleman. I have no idea what they were saying but it was about girls. I’m a guy and i can tell when other guys are talking about girls (no matter what their age).

I had to get to the next show but I was so happy to have stumbled on this this little, tiny slice of life.