The New Oriental Style

Thoughts on micro-trends and the decision to appreciate versus adopt them

Hello from Shanghai! I’m back for work for the month of June and spent the weekend celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival with some of my team here and wandering the streets of the French Concession and Xintiandi areas, which are both great spots for people watching and for soaking in the Shanghai scenes.

On my last trip, I was really inspired by a trend called the New Oriental style, in which younger Chinese women are embracing traditional Chinese clothing elements… with a twist. The Qipao is the traditional Chinese dress that dates back to the Qing Dynasty and exploded in popularity in the 60s when upper class Shanghainese ladies started wearing them in Hong Kong. For me, there is no more romantic homage to the Qipao than Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love, as Maggie Cheung wears 20 or so qipaos in very flower child prints and patterns.

Today in Shanghai, there are so many qipao twists that I can’t keep up - there are mesh versions, drape-y versions oversized, qipaos with high slits that girls are wearing over wideleg pants, electric colors, qipaos with cat cartoons all over them… And what I love even more is seeing the way they’re accessorized, with very ladylike pearl earrings making a comeback and traditional Chinese jackets layered over. The traditional knot closure, called the pankou or frog closure (as seen on my top below), is a detail that is making a comeback in jackets and shirting here. Color is key with bold purples, acid green, bubblegum pink and bright red coming into play. I really need to get brave and to start capturing these women who I see embracing the New Oriental style because it’s just so romantic and ladylike and punk all at the same time. A few of my team members here wear the style to the office (and they actually alerted me to the name for this trend), so I’ll try to start with them. It’s so refreshing to discover something not from the Internet but from real life.

I went to a store at Xintiandi that I love called Shanghai Showroom and tried on a million pieces in an attempt to play with this trend that I so love only to acknowledge that I can only take it so far. I have broad shoulders, so drape-y silhouettes can make me look like a box. I’m too tall for many of the cuts here, or the colors just look all wrong on me. I ended up with this look instead, which feels much more masculine than the expression of the New Oriental style that I see here, but I love it nonetheless.

Trying to make this trend work for me really got me thinking about trends in general. For the life of me, I have never been able to make trends work for myself. I always feel like a fraud. And I typically have a love/hate relationship with them because I’m interested yet don’t want to look like everyone around me. This time, without intending to, and by trying my damndest to buy into the New Oriental look, I feel like I ended up with a hint of it that actually feels very me - black & white, a stand collar (I love collars), a defined waist, trousers… The pearls that I see on earrings here in Shanghai ended up dangling from the necklace-turned-belt, and the blouse still has the frog closures that I love.

I like the idea of wearing the white silk wrap with denim and slides, my own version of the vest trend, or layered over a dress. The black silk trousers are black silk trousers, so I expect to get a lot of wear out of them. They have Chinese characters printed all over them, which you can’t really see in this image. I hope to get a photo with better lighting once I wear them IRL!

I think that exploring a trend really means playing around with it, thinking about your own personal style, your body type, the items in your closet and how you can make it personal to you. I don’t like the idea of shopping for a seasonal look, as I’ve discussed a bit in my closet tour videos. What comes into my closet needs to stay for the long haul, which requires a little trial and error in the fitting room and a mental inventory of what I own that will pair back to whatever I’m considering.

Once I get a bit more settled here, I plan to do a mini “closet tour” that is actually a suitcase tour of what I packed and how I’ll mix and match these new finds with what I brought!

I’ll leave you with a pic of this Uma Wang pinstriped beauty that I did not take home but might splurge on for my birthday, which I’ll be spending here! I’m wearing it with a necklace that I made after my last trip here. I found Tibetan seaglass that looked like little jelly candies and beaded them with some quartz!