My Strange Addiction

I have a confession to make. I've been harboring a secret from all of you. Something that I have been too ashamed to share with you until now. My name is Kristin and I am an addict.

What kind of addiction do I have? Well, that's the shameful part.

It's to cat shirts.

I've hinted at my little habit in the past by posting photos such as this.

But now I'm coming clean about my issues with cat shirts. Buying them, wearing them, hoarding them. When I see a cat shirt on the street, my heart speeds up a little and my brow gets sweaty. I start to envision all the places I could wear that cat shirt. The adventures we could take together.

This problem with cat shirts started long before I came to Shanghai though. As a child, my mother happily gave in to my desire to be adorned in feline attire and I wore cat as my signature style.

My sister was no help with my dependency either. She not only enabled me and supported my decision to pick up this beauty from the Jason Wu for Target Collection shortly before we moved to China but she bought me a cat shirt for Christmas.

So I'm going cold turkey. I'm taking a stand. No more cat shirts.

But no one said anything about cat dresses.

Snapshots of Chinese Fashion

I realize my cell phone photos are not going to win me any awards. But they might win a few chuckles from my readers, and that is what is really important, right? So here is round two of my Chinese fashion showcase. And yes, I'm aware these photo make me look like a stalker.

It was rather cold when I took this photo. Look closely at his ears. He appears to be wearing custom leather ear covers. I hope these are all the rage next winter.

And then there was this woman on the subway in Hong Kong. I realize it's hard to see but her shirt says "Autistic Couture". Either she is really proud of being on the spectrum or her shirt was meant to say artistic.

This girl's butt says Meow Kingdom. How could I not take a creepy photo of her?

And this pensive soul showed off his love of tigers and fluffy hair while on a subway ride.

I've told you before animal is all the rage here. This life size tiger head backpack takes it to a whole new level.

This subway rider is feeling confident. I bet it's her sparkly belt buckle that brings all the boys to the yard.

And this, well this just makes no sense.

 

Fashionable Favorites

Shanghai is an incredibly fashionable city. Coming from a small town where the nearest mall was thirty minutes away, I'm not the most in vogue. So in an effort to seem a little more hip (which I clearly am not), I've decided to showcase two trends which I have seen repeatedly since our arrival in Shanghai.

First up, glasses. I have a lovely set of eyes with 20/20 vision so I've never had the need for glasses. But everyone looks smarter with a pair of spectacles. You'd trust anything this girl told you, right? She's clearly pondering how to stop North Korea from launching another rocket. Or perhaps curing cancer. Regardless, she's clearly so much smarter with those frames on her face.

But here's the thing about the glasses trend. If you don't really need glasses, the lenses can be distracting and cumbersome. So for fashion's sake, the Chinese simply wear the frames. See, no lenses (and I take back everything I said about this girl looking smarter with glasses on).

The second trend to note is wearing animal adorned clothing. I know what you are thinking, "But Kristin, animal print is worn everywhere!" and this is true. But in China, they don't just wear animal print, they wear clothing that looks like animals. As in, has ears and tails.

Exhibit A

And no, that isn't a 15 year old girl rocking that tail. In Shanghai, it's perfectly acceptable for any self respecting adult to wear animal inspired clothing. See, even my cat shirt looks smarter with glasses.

I'll Miss You Bellies

Now that cooler temperatures are finally upon us in Shanghai, I have to bid adieu to one of my favorite summer fashion statements: the male belly shirt. I wish I had more photos to share with you, but alas, it seems we will all have to wait until next summer for more midriff magic.

(photo courtesy of my friend Jen)