March 31, 2008
American Apparel coming to Shanghai
Fans of tight-fitting non-branded clothing rejoice! Following the much-heralded invasion of H&M and (the slightly less heralded) C&A, dedicated followers of fashion have the arrival of another Western brand to look forward to, after American Apparel announced that they will be hitting the streets of Shanghai in the next month or so. Location details have not yet been released but the chain is currently negotiating a lease for a downtown store in Shanghai, as well as planning to open in Beijing and Suzhou.
From the American Apparel site:
We're coming to China!In the next few months American Apparel will be opening its first stores in China with locations already slated in Beijing and in Shanghai.
In a rare industry occurrence, we will be bringing Made in the USA clothing to China and we intend to pay employees there gross wages that exceed the US minimum.
Get those job applications in now then folks. According to fashion news site DNR, the brand could opt for a so-called 'soft opening' in China — with a relatively low-key advertising campaign and little fanfare surrounding their store openings — due to fears that some of their usual advertisements may ruffle feathers over at SARFT towers. As you'll probably recall, our good friends at the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television launched a crackdown on "social pollution" last year by banning a whole host of evil adverts that featured people in (gasp!) their underwear. For some reason then, American Apparel reckon that ads like the one pictured above might not go down too well in the Middle Kingdom.
They're expecting a warmer reaction from Chinese consumers to their line of no-nonsense clothing however, and, despite entering the Chinese market, will continue to manufacture their products in their factory in downtown LA. Bizarrely then, you'll soon be able to buy products in China with a 'Made in the USA' label on them, rather than vice-versa.
Thanks to Micah Sittig for the tip via our Contribute page.
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The primary color underwear is taking over the 1933 project in Hongkou. AA is the anchor tenant.
I love American Apparel. In fact, I'm wearing an American Apparel t-shirt right now. But having them here, does this mean we'll have to deal with Shanghai hipsters soon?
On the other hand you guys were scooped by Shopgirl by 3 weeks
http://www.siyansshanghai.com/2008/03/american-apparell-opening-in-shanghai.html
and this despite the fact they told me there would be no space available for retail in 1933 when I visited there in February.
But having them here, does this mean we'll have to deal with Shanghai hipsters soon?
I wish to know more about you and this life of yours in Shanghai where you encounter no hipsters. What Utopian bliss! Teach me your ways, please.
this life of yours in Shanghai where you encounter no hipsters
1. Stay away from non-Corporate coffee shops. Only Starbucks for me!
2. Spend your days at work. It's much tougher to run into scenesters when you're spending all day in a cube. And not in tattoo parlor or shopping for faux-vintage clothing on Xinle Lu.
3. Speaking of which, avoid stores which stock unisex skinny jeans.
4. Luckily we don't have a burgeoning live indie rock scene in Shanghai - although it's growing. But don't help it to grow! Because pretty soon we'll be inundated with ironic t-shirts and thick black glasses wearing hipsters - specially imported from Los Angeles.
They're paying more than minimum wage US dollars? O_o
...struggling with math in head...
$6/hour x 40 hrs = $240/week = $960/month x steadily falling exchange rate ~ 6720RMB
Anywhere in China besides Shanghai or Beijing and that would be a fortune. It's already more than I'm making -_-
Yup, so big ups to Siyan for the tip! If she had posted it to our Contribute page I'm sure we would have noticed sooner.
There is an overlap between the readership of Shopgirl and Shanghaiist? *mock horror*
that's weird, I actually posted the tip up on the contributors page....
but thanks to the people who recognized it :)
UH OH, T.... I avoid starbucks... I try to get outside as much as possible... I even wear skinny jeans sometimes! I might be a hipster! I don't have horn-rim glasses yet, though... but if I do get some, I'll be sure to use the frames to gouge my own eyes out.
gratuitous hating on hipsters is so 1995.
WBDVD - more of a 2002-2004 thing, I'd say. In 95 we were still listening to grunge and wearing flannel.
Well, okay, maybe those were the days of proto-hipsters and proto-hating on proto-hipsters. Things weren't quite as ironic then, maybe. But it was before 2002, for sure.
Proto-hipsters are okay, since they were creating a scene, not joining one post-Zeitgeist. It's all very-Meta - but I wanted to get Shanghaiist on the hipster-hating bandwagon of the other -ists. Wait, does this mean I'm also joining a movement? It's all a bit too PoMo for me.
But I'm pretty sure skinny jeans' most recent incarnation wasn't until at least this century.
I guess poseurs came first, and sort of transmogrified into hipsters some time around the time punk broke, which could either be like 1980 or so or could be 1995 or so, depending on way too many factors to figure out here. It is all recurring, isn't it. Like the first instance of skinny jeans is mentioned in Genesis and the Bhagavad Gita somewhere. I have another pop-culture question, though. Is a Chinese Wigga properly called a Chigga?
I'm going to wear horn-rimmed jeans and skinny glasses. Switch it up like Kriss-Kross.
Hiptsters have been around as long as pop-culture 'scenes' ... the first scenesters plagued the UK in the swinging 60's for sure.
Historical references to hipsters, anyone?
I often worry that I'm a hipster but have two fall backs:
1) I never wear skinny pants of any type.
2) I'm from Liverpool UK and tend to mainly wear loose fitting track suits and training clothes on all occaisions (Liverpool thing)
Finally ..Wigga?
From the newly unblocked Wikipedia! Wigga.
Andy_Best - Wigga (or Wigger) is a often derogetory way to refer to "white guys" (and they're 99% guys) who "act black*"
*in this specific case, black meaning - Black American, urban, flashy, baggy clothes, loud hip hop, etc. etc.
It's a portmanteau of "white" and [offensive word, that refers to blacks, normally black americans]
So it's a combination of an original racist term, the above stereotype and the concept of having to act a certain way depending on your skin colour.
Guess I won't be using it then.
that's pretty much it.
So T ...
Want to get Shanghaiist on the Hipster hating bandwagon. I have an idea. You can start a feature.
You don't need to 'out' people so to speak.
Take photos at clubs you go to and write them up (the nights in general not just the photos) in a satire style.
I've been to clubs in Shanghai - they are goldmines of material for such a feature. Write on up and send it to Kenneth.
It could even be a satire of a hipsters diary ...
If T doesn't want this assignment, who's gonna step up?
That doesn't sound like a good idea, Andy.
Wouldn't a large percentage of Shanghaiist readers (and contributors) fall under the "hipster" category? And why is that a bad thing?
I myself am a proud "grandpa hipster."
nah, like most people, I'd rather actually sit on the sidelines and comment rather than actually expose myself by writing on Shanghaiist. Thanks though.
Hating hipsters takes effort. I'm more of a "they annoy me, but I'm not really in a hating mood" thing. Maybe you could convince nanheyangrouchuan they're behind the new Chinese aircraft carrier.
Oh, I don't really mind hipsters myself ... I think a satircal 'hipsters diary' would be funny. Maybe that's for someone else's blog.
If nanheyangrouchuan wrote it, it could be the next China Bounder scandal.
Grandpa Hipster? Sounds like a satirical blog right there, Dan. ;)