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Here in Guangzhou, young women tend to dress in a combination of Western/Japanese/Korean styles... jeans and t-shirts are the norm, tights under shorts or skirts, or simply tights during the winter. Although the styles seem, on the onset, to be similar to what you'd have in the West, there are differences in terms of the tailoring. Young women tend to place more of an emphasis on "cuteness" versus sexiness, and so because of this, you will see a girl wearing a pair of shorts that are what we'd call "booty shorts" back home or wearing low-cut jeans that sit on the hip bones, but they are a little loose-fitting instead of skin tight. You also see lots of shirts with Chinglish sayings, and more prominent brand names and logos than you'd generally see in the West - i.e., a shirt with "PRADA" or "CHANEL" in huge letters across it. Shirts with embroidered designs, rhinestones, and other baubles that would be thought of as gaudy back home are "cute" and "nice" here.
For guys, jeans and t-shirts are the basic outfit. Jeans tend to err more on the "designer" side, i.e., skinny legged, smoother materials, etc. than the looser-fitting, denim jeans that most non-hipster Western dudes favor. Levi's (and copies thereof) are very popular, though. T-shirts also often have Chinglish sayings, or are logo tees for sports companies, teams, US cities and universities, stuff like that. Ramones shirts are en vogue now.
One thing that is interesting is that since most clothing in the world comes from Guangdong province, clothing is super-cheap here and very plentiful, so young people who only make 2500 yuan a month can still afford to dress nice - I got a pair of Billabong jackets that "fell off the back of a truck" for 50 yuan, or about $8, each - the US MSRP tags on them were $129. I got three Nordstrom's branded dress shirts with $70 US MSRP tags for 20 yuan, or about $3.50, each. It also means that you get an interesting cross section of logo tees: not long after I moved, I saw a middle-aged woman wearing a shirt for The Melvins, a fairly obscure Seattle metal/grunge band; I saw a couple Nine Inch Nails shirts with the NIN logo; a shirt plugging some random sucker for US congress; a couple "_______ HIGH SCHOOL STATE CHAMPION 2012" team sport shirts naming some small US town; stuff like this.
They are both overdressed and under dressed.
Funny that you can see Chinese women wearing cocktail dresses and sequined dresses in the grocery at the same time, you can also see some wearing pjs in the grocery.
Men are so under dressed.
Interesting post ^. Would you say, in general, that people in large Chinese cities are relatively well dressed? At least compared to Americans..
I think Hermosaa sums it up well; they are at once over and underdressed. You'll see a woman in a dingy noodle shop in a dirty, crowded walled estate wearing a very nice and classy ensemble with a skirt, stockings, collared blazer, and scarf, and then you'll go to a classy restaurant and see a lady wearing A disgusting velour jumpsuit with rhinestones and a baseball cap. You see some guys who only make a couple thousand kuai per month wearing slacks and button down shirts with modern, cool casual jackets and then you'll see a middle-class fellow wearing a polo that looks like it came from goodwill and a pair of blue sweatpants.
The average Chinese person is probably about the same as an american in terms of how much care they put into dressing, just with different fashion sensibilities. When chinese people are underdressed, I think it's less cohesive than with Americans - I.e., a guy will wear his favorite band shirt from the Tool '97 tour with a pair of holey jeans, so at least he consistently looks like a stoner metal dude. I just got out of a cab here and the first girl I saw was wearing a giant spongebob shirt, a pair of grey and blue polka dot tights, and fuzzy purple leg warmers. This only struck me as bizzare because I'm typing a message about it; I think a lot of people here have the attitude that if an article of clothing is nice, it will look great with other nice articles of clothing, regardless of color/style/etc
Most older Chinese do not really know much about fashion, especially men.
My father will never wear shorts or T-shirts at work, and that's pretty much the only "fashion" he follows. He does not care about brands, neither does he have any knowledge.
Yes, I noticed people in those developed asian countries dress with more styles than the rest of Asia.
Actually they are the fashion capitals of Asia like NYC, London, Paris and Milan in the West.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonightbehi
Fashion is not taken seriously in China, as in Southeast Asia and South Asia, developing countries.
Fashion in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are taken more seriously.
They are both overdressed and under dressed.
Funny that you can see Chinese women wearing cocktail dresses and sequined dresses in the grocery at the same time, you can also see some wearing pjs in the grocery.
Men are so under dressed.
I'll agree with this for the most part. Lots of times you'll have people wearing pajamas out on the streets in the early mornings or late evenings, but then you will see a lot of others wearing business casual just hanging out on the street corner.
In general, I think the style of dress is quite a bit fancier than in America. Your average college student in China will often wear sports jackets/blazers and big name knock offs because they are quite cheap and literally everywhere. Though quality high-fashion retailers can be found much more easily as well. The typical style of dress for your average American college student tends to be blue jeans, a hoodie with the school logo, and flip-flops. Chinese girls in particular can dress quite tacky with miss-matched colors and bizarre patterns, but it always felt like there was quite a bit of thought (or none) into the style of dress.
I think it's pretty obvious that the average American tends to be much less conscious about what they wear outside of work. After of a few years of living/shopping in China I felt I was way overdressed returning to suburban life in America and have had to tone it down.
I would say people are much more free to wear what they want here, and fashion is a much more personal (rather than societal) thing. There is a lot of unseen pressure in America to dress a certain way for a certain venue (not necessarily a good way, but a specific way). If you walked into a dive or biker bar in America wearing a nice suit and tie you would at least expect a cold reaction. A lot of groups in America dress similarly to other members of their group/subculture. There really doesn't seem to be anything like that in China. You can pretty much dress as you please and no one will bug you about it.
A girl showing cleavage is a no-no. Wearing summer clothes in the winter or winter clothes in the summer is weird. Guys do not want to date girls who dress sexy as they don't think they will make good wives. Workplace attire is not that different.
Wearing dresses is more common in Mainland China than HK, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore.
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