Every month, we take a look at some of the new arrivals in Shanghai's shopping landscapes. For past editions of New Shanghai Shops, click here.
Too Cool For School
We’re big suckers for coolly packaged makeup, facemasks promising to smell like cucumber and honey and lavishly scented ointments for our limbs. So we are pretty stoked to hear that Korean brand Too Cool for School has opened its first store in Shanghai. We went to check it out and, yes, bought half the store.
Launched in 2009, the brand has made a name for itself for selling beauty products that are designed and wrapped in playful, colorful artwork by a range of illustrators, graphic artists and designers. If that makes you sneer and think, “Ah, another Korean cutesy brand,” you’re wrong.
Too Cool for School offers a range of innovative skincare and cosmetics formulas that are really good, like its famed egg cream mask (the core ingredient is egg yolk extract). They just happen to come in funky packaging, and to us, that is nothing but a plus.
The shop has a stylish industrial-meets-hipster feel, with brightly lit displays showcasing a huge selection of products, from a blusher called “Dinoplatz Cushy Blusher” to a “Glam Rock Urban Shadow” lipstick. It’s all quite fun, fresh and unfussy – perfect for an occasional treat or gift idea. Bonus point: prices start at around RMB98 and never go beyond the RMB300 mark. Too cool for school indeed.
See listing for Too Cool For School here.
Kate Wood
Wulumuqi Lu has undergone a small makeover as of late. First it was the little Italian bistro La Vite, opposite Avocado Lady. Then Little Catch, Brothers’ Kebab and, a few months ago, Zurita – one of our favorite indie, niche boutiques at the moment. Now, adding to the retail scene is Shanghai-born brand Kate Wood, which opened its first brick-and-mortar store just a little further down the road, where Wulumuqi intersects with Fuxing Lu.
An airy, sunlit space of white walls, warm wooden floors and minimal décor, the shop carries the entire Kate Wood’s range – sunglasses, uber cool bamboo fixies, watches and a bunch of neat outerwear – as well as a few other local designers: candles from The House of Opulence, pumps by Beijing-based Dutch designer Wolfgang Gieler, leather bags and rucksacks by Justified.
Owner and founder of Kate Wood Pim Gietelink has turned an area of the shop into his office, and is happy to serve customers and tell them the story behind his label (Kate is his daughter’s name, Wood the main material used for the products) over a strong cup of coffee, served in store. Unpretentious, carefully curated and straightforward in its décor and vibe, Kate Wood makes for a good pit stop on busy Wulumuqi – and the perfect place to shop for interesting, one-of-a-kind designs made in Shanghai.
See listing for Kate Wood here.
Fantasy Fanatic
Hipster everything With its psychedelic and bright pop aesthetic, we can’t get enough of Fantasy Fanatic, a label from London- and Beijing-based Zhang Liang (aka Ray). The graphic designer and illustrator plays with pop culture icons like David Bowie, Michael Jackson and Miley Cyrus to make tongue-in-cheek accessories and jewelry (RMB88-328).
But he also pays homage to some of Beijing’s most instantly recognizable features, like the city’s dancing grannies sporting anti-pollution masks, which come as badges or plastered all over funky tote bags (RMB238).
His use of prints is loud, joyful and hallucination-inducing – just check out his knee-high socks called Sweet Cloud (RMB108). We want it all.
See Zhang Liang Ray's website or contact him at zhangyixian221323@hotmail.com.
Biz Eyes
Fashion should always be fun. Full stop. Why stick to the classics when you can find staple pieces anytime? Don’t get me wrong; I love a good, sharply cut suit, or a timeless designer clutch. But, sometimes, the excitement that comes from wearing something a little more extravagant, a little more decadent, is hard to beat. I’ll go as far as stating this: no closet is complete without a few signature items (aka ‘statement pieces’) guaranteed to garner compliments, act as effortless show-stoppers the moment you walk into any new room, or simply make you feel like a million bucks every time you don them.
Shanghai based venture Biz Eyes ticks all of these boxes. Launched by Iranian architect Nasim Sehat, the brandcum-design project does stunning, architectural, sculptural glasses (art pieces in their own right, if you ask me) inspired by expressionism and minimalism, naïve art and the dynamic culture of the modern metropolis.
Quirky and delightfully frivolous, each pair of Sehat’s 3D eyewear – rigorously dyed, assembled and hand finished in her Shanghai studio – is composed of custom detachable spectacles that can be replaced simply by turning them 25 degrees and screwing another pair on. The base frame is made from sturdy transparent resin and the frames themselves are printed in white nylon and resin. The end product is a series of made-to-order, Lady Gaga-esque accessories the wearer can adapt and change, interpret and re-interpret in a myriad of different ways, from vintage to contemporary, futuristic to abstract.
Images by Pavel Shubskiy.
Your style should mimic your personality. This label lets you do just that. Prices range RMB950-1,500. Biz Eyes takes 10 days to produce, dye, assemble and deliver its pieces to the customers.
Pre-order on www.bizeyes.biz.
Very Latvia
We don’t usually write about WeChat stores – the list is endless – but when we heard that one was launching to sell exclusively Latvian products, we were intrigued. Fun fact about Latvia: more than 50 percent of its land is covered by forests, and it is one of the most environmentally friendly countries on the planet. One can’t but like a country like that, no? VeryLatvia is a showroom in Shanghai that aims to introduce Latvian design and lifestyle products to China.
The wares they carry (and now sell on WeChat and, soon on Taobao) are solely made by Latvian designers and epitomize the aesthetic and craftsmanship principles of the country. That means an eclectic range of items that are environmentally friendly, natural and chemical- and preservative-free (for food items).
The offer on the site, which launches this month, includes natural and GMO free soy wax candles (called “Naturella”) decorated with wild crafter herbs, berries and spices (how fairy tale-ish is that?), handmade lamps inspired by a natural aesthetic and made with simple but unconventional materials, and ‘sin-free’ Latvian snacks handmade with dried and fresh berries, cashew nuts, flax and pumpkin seeds, all free of gluten, sugar or nasty chemicals. Couldn’t sound more wholesome if it tried. Summer trip to Latvia, anyone?
Check the account verylatvia on WeChat to access the store.
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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