logo
Shanghai fashion

1950s Shanghai Fashion: Making New Clothes from Old

In 1957, Shanghai fashion was all about recycling: turning old clothes into new. That year, the Shanghai Clothing Company published a pattern book, “Making New Clothes From Old”, with patterns to turn your bourgeois changshan (men's gown) into something more proletarian. Inside, there are patterns to turn an ...

The Shanghai Beret Project

Meet the beret-wearing gentlemen of Shanghai. It's a classic Shanghai sight: older Chinese men sporting rakish berets. The iconic headwear of the French never seems to have gone out of style among gentlemen of a certain age in Shanghai, a legacy formed during the period of the French Concession (1849-1945). Some ...