Written by Marianna Cerini and Betty Richardson
The Crow House by Dongliang
Dongliang is one of those shops we can’t get enough of. One of the first China-centric fashion concept stores to open in the Mainland (in Beijing first, all the way back in 2009), over the years the boutique has grown into an organic venture, opening a larger space in the capital’s CBD and one in Shanghai in 2011, on leafy Fumin Lu.
It also became one of the main promoters of Chinese fashion both here and abroad (its ONE DAY event at Shanghai Fashion Week was a main highlight of this season’s fashion bonanza). The masterminds behind it are now at it again with a second shop on Changle Lu. A visually compelling space, the store occupies an old 1930s house, with the first floor taken up by a ‘living space’ selling coffee (from Seesaw) and small sweet bites alongside accessories and indie zines.
Upstairs are five rooms, each showcasing a different designer –Uma Wang, Boundless (pictured above), He Yan, Nicole Zhang and Yang Li (see cover image) – and five different ways to interpret ‘Designed in China.’ Aiming to offer an almost sensory approach to fashion and retail, the entire place is a pleasure to linger in for a few hours, and a real hymn to the potential of China’s fashion and design talent.
> See listing for The Crow House by Dongliang here.
MMC Boutique
Recently opened on Xinle Lu, MMC Boutique is a concept store selling underground unisex fashion labels, avant-garde homewares and accessories. Looking unremarkable from the outside save for a neon orange bust of Brit monarch Charles II in the window, inside it is brilliantly merchandised with cult labels like Y’s by Yohji Yamamoto and Ronald Pineau.
Geared toward offbeat luxury (and the occasional bargain), prices are steep but not ridiculous, and the shop is interesting enough to peruse for inspiration. We had major envy over the Mad et Len unisex perfumes and cologne (Thé Sichuan, particularly) and Comme des Garçon’s skull-shaped handbags. With a distinctly Goth chic feel, MMC isn’t the place to look for classic aesthetics, but it is great for the hypebeast in your life, or you know, just yourself. BR
> See listing for MMC Boutique here.
The Mix Place
We always relish the opening of solid, interesting concept stores in the city – as much as we are drawn to the cheapness of H&M & co., it’s nice to know there are places out there selling original products and indie brands that aren’t fast fashion or downright high-end. The Mix Place is one such space. A new, boutique at the intersection of Hengshan Lu and Tianping Lu, it is part of an ambitious retail project that also includes a super dope bookshop-cum-café and a menswear store.
The women’s outlet carries labels like Fake Natoo, Vega Zaishi Wang and Hyssop, alongside some hip design products by HAY and Re-Classified candles and diffusors. The shop’s almost labyrinthine layout is plain cool, a blend of concrete rooms, big wooden tables and industrial lamps. It’s hip without trying too hard, which is something we endorse.
The nearby bookstore is a must visit too. Stocked with (mostly Chinese) books and highly covetable prints, it also has a selection of rare foreign mags we would never have expected to find in Shanghai. Prices for both spaces (we didn’t check out the menswear venture, so y’all have to come back to this page next month) are high, of course, but the quality is top and the curation on point. We’re in love.
> See listing for Mix Place here and for Mix Paper here.
Fernanda Sung's Animal Kingdom collection
Shanghai-based jewelry maker Fernanda Sung knows how to keep her creations interesting. The crafty artist strikes a particularly sweet chord with us here at That’s Towers with her Animal Kingdom collection, which features (among others) cat-, elephant-, cow- and wolf-shaped earrings and tiny little pendants, all in silver and all absolutely adorable.
Sometimes it’s the trimmings that make a look. Sung’s baubles are perfect proof of that. Animal earrings RMB390, animal studs RMB215 and animal necklaces RMB230.
> Find the collection at Hey! Jewel Station. Check www.fernandasungjewelery.com for more designs.
Veins Design Collaborative (VDC) iPhone Covers
iPhones. Everyone (ok almost everyone) has one. How boring, we say. How homogenous (but also how convenient. Phone’s pretty good, there’s no doubt about that). But how do you make yours stand out from the throng? Put a cover on it. Best yet, choose one from Beijing design collective Veins Design Collaborative (VDC). Showing a wavy graphic pattern rendered in brushstroke-like lines, each case is really, really cool. Extra tip: scan the 'keyword' on the card that comes with the cover and download the same cover design as your phone wallpaper. RMB100
> veinsdesign.tumblr.com
Louis Vuitton City App
For fashion types in the know – you Monocle and Kinfolk readers out there – Louis Vuitton City Guides Collections are a recurrent must-have to travel in style. The guidebooks, which claim to be antitourist and provide off-the-beaten-track, little black book kind of info for the hippest hotels, restaurants, nightlife hotspots and cultural districts of major cities around the world, have recently gotten a digital makeover. They now come in the form of handy apps you can download on your phone or tablet. Among the 25 metropolises featured are of course Beijing and Shanghai, which makes this the perfect tool to entertain your folks next time they visit (assuming they are as hip as you are, of course). In addition to the app, a traditional limited edition box set of Louis Vuitton’s city guides is also available, as well as monogram iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cases in four different colors. Your Chinese New Year present, sorted.
Have a new store opening or fashion line coming out. Send your tips to our Life/Style editor Marianna Cerini at mariannacerini@urbanatomy.com with the subject 'New Shanghai Shops'
> For past editions of New Shanghai Shops, click here.
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