How To Dress (like a Typical Fashionable HK Youth)

Fashion Connoisseurs, Culture-buffs and Cognoscenti:

I have stumbled across the fool-proof formula on how to dress like a trendy local HK youth. After serious analysis and painstaking first-hand research, I submit to you my findings. Please excuse the tone, which sometimes can be considered condescending. I personally would wear some of the garments, I just choose to write cynically about how easily the majority of trendy local youth are to stereotype. QED.

1. The Headgarment











So it appears that Hong Kongers didn't get the memo that Trucker Hats were dead: They're still going strong here. Usually black and high-profile with a white front, they usually contain either ghetto-inspired graphics or non-sensical english phrases. Usually worn by the trendy local male, but can be seen on some females, often covering dyed hair.

2. The Basic Shirt














Comme Des Garcon's Play series T-shirts. Eminently popular here, although yet undetermined if a bootlegger industry exists for Rei Kawakubo's lower-tier line. Generally, the trendy Hong Kong male wears the big black heart on a white Tee, while the female wears the big red heart on a white Tee. This fits with the local ethos of wearing a high-end, exclusive brand, with evidence of the brand displayed prominently on the garment or accessory.

3. The Outergarment



















Despite the often-extreme heat and humidity felt in the dense stretches of the city, locals still often wear thin jackets or coats. Thin black leather is also popular, but some of the trendiest wear shiny poly-based jackets to truly stand out. For lack of a better example, this black Alexander McQueen Bomber will have to do.

4. The Pants











Premium Denim. Levi's. 'Nuff said. This is the standard product for both men and women. As several asian (read: mostly Japanese) brands have done collaborations with Levi's in recent years, many locals in the know have picked these jeans up. Competitors Evisu and Seven come in a distant Second and Third Place. Haven't seen much in the way of acid wash or distress marks/holes. They like them clean, fitted and Levi'd out. The only exception to this rule was seeing "Ip Man" and HK Action film superstar Donnie Yen dressed like a '70's pimp in tight white pants. I actually am liking the Levi's I've been seeing here, and might pick up a pair, if not those Original Fake v. Levi's collabo pictured above.


5. The Kicks

















In North America, trendsters wear premium Nike Air Force 1's or some comparable off-shoot (you all know the names). Here, the brand of choice is? CONVERSE. Their white shell toes and coloured fabric shells can be seen on 80% of the local youth. Be it His, Lows, Jack Purcells or Chucks, the brand once thought dead is definitely alive in Asia.

6. The Accessory



















The Louis Vuitton Bag. This brand is ubiquitous in Hong Kong. Their love for this brand extends from their massive and numerous locations in the City to the Sunday afternoon organized queues due to the sheer volume of visitors to each store. The obsession extends to the point that I almost believe that a girl/guy's first purchase of an LV bag is like a right of passage, similar to a Bar Mitzvah or a Sweet 16. When a trendy HK female is in a relationship with a trendy HK male, it is common to see the male carrying the female's bag.

Coming to Hong Kong and witnessing this bizarre brand addiction has me chastising: "Kanye, How Could You!!!"

BY FOLLOWING THE PREVIOUS 6 EASY STEPS/PURCHASES, NOW YOU CAN BE A HIP, TRENDY HONG KONG LOCAL TOO!!!?!!?!


MUSIC: This track is bangin in my headbox. The Frenchman does it again:
The Kills - Cheap & Cheerful (SebastiAn Remix) (320)
http://www17.zippyshare.com/v/12275195/file.html

Sucks to your Assmar

So apparently I've become asthmatic again. Went out tonight to Happy Valley Racetrack, as is becoming a weekly Wednesday tradition, and attended the horseraces. It's a genuinely entertaining experience, and definitely explains Woodbine's eternal slogan "That's Entertainment". Bet on two of the heats, won money on both but left $6HKD down due to betting on two horses, relatively sure bets, to place, when it turned out that, whodathunkit, they would win their heats. It was nice to win at an event such as horceracing, it legitimately gets your blood flowing. The event is structured so that you get 1 minute of pure adrenaline-rushing entertainment, and chill for 29 minutes, drink beer, eat shish kebabs and place bets on the next race. All in all, a great way to be entertained on a wednesday night. Ran into the HKUST girls for the first time, it was nice to see them down and ready to party.
Back to the assmar. Ever since i've come back from Boracay (STORY TO COME TOMORROW, apologies), i've been feeling relatively under the weather. Went to Wan Chai (the sleazy area of Victoria Island, which hosts ladies nights on Wednesdays and is frequented by many an exchange student) and had a good time, but was suddenly under attack by the evil diaphragm. Suffice it to say, I turned in earlyish tonight, but nonetheless felt like posting to this blog. I've gotten several requests for updates so here's update number 1. I will post a more detailed update about my Philippines adventures tomorrow or Friday, depending on how much i'm interested in the classes in which I intend to blog. The mother's bitching about setting up a Flickr account, and considering that the woman pays for the majority of this trip, I owe it to her. Expect award-winning photos to appear on that website in the near future.

Anyways, enough of my hyperventilating ramblings. Time to pass out and get up for my day of hell, class-wise. I have a professor in my Creativity class (Thursdays 6-9pm) who likes to call me "Ivey" and chirps me for 3 hours every thursday because we do cases for a living, so I've gotta rest up to handle that irrelevant abuse.

Goodnight and blog more tomorrow.

Oh and requisite music link:
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream (Van She Tech Remix)
http://www2.zippyshare.com/v/44726294/file.html

Nice uplifting track that'll put a smile on anybody's face.

Settling In

SO. Long time no post. It's been just over a week since I've arrived in Hong Kong, and as many have seen from pictures I've posted elsewhere, I've left my room a little since I've been here. The university itself is a little out of sorts in its preparation for exchange students, which was probably not helped by my late arrival Friday night.

The flight itself was without incident, amusingly enough we ended the flight with a cup o' noodles. I caught up on Flight of the Conchords, which has been a gift and a curse, the latter more specifically when I've met New Zealanders here (hard to find a common ground on their country that doesnt involve hobbits or singing comedians, shows you how "worldly" I really am). After collecting my luggage, I met with my exchange buddy Oscar, who took me into town and to my residence. The hall itself is the farthest from campus, at least a 15 minute busride away, but has turned out quite nicely in the end. Built in the 1860s, the Victorian style mansion has been used as a British Lord's castle, a French Mission, a military base for the invading Japanese and finally a university residence. As I've indicated to a few of you, it has very much a "Harry Potter"-like feel, with high ceilings and various dated traditions, including a "High Table Dinner", a monthly occurrence that sees all hall residents decked out in robes and take part in a ceremonial meal. Having arrived late Friday, I missed the first one of the year, but my fellow exchangers (all 6 of them) declared it an...."interesting" experience.

The students residing in the hall are a mixed bag, exchange students aside. The majority are of course Hong Kong locals, many of whom stay up late doing god knows what, running and wrestling in the halls and keeping everybody up. School might not be the priority for some of them, or they just relish an escape from their families. There are other full-time students that come from other China-associated regions, some from the mainland, Taiwan and Macau. My closest association with permanent residents has been with a Macau national named Terrance (sp) and a Shanghainese named Ben. Both are roommates, Terrance is tall and quiet who helped me out with an initially troublesome room situation (they didn't have one for me when I arrived, I slept on a couch my first night, no biggy), and Ben is a more talkative, shorter character that chides Terrance often ("He's from Macau so his dad owns a Casino, that's why I'm his best friend" etc) and aspires to move to the West (he's taking his TOEFL exams this weekend).

Who are my roommates? Yes, I have 2, which is the case for most residences here. Luckily, my hall has some of HKU's largest rooms, which is a small relief. One roommate (Ash) is from Canada, goes to Schulich at York and has a job lined up at TD Securities. The other (Julian) is from Southern England, and is a bit of an unintentional character. He's an outspoken conservative and is quite proud of his proper "Oxford" accent, and aspires to work in estate management (essentially handling the wealth, possessions and property of Britain's upper class). He's always good for a new Britishism a day, for instance "queues" instead of lines, "rucksack" instead of backpack and "dappy" instead of...I didn't totally figure out what that one meant, but the intentions were the same as one would have to describe a dumb blonde.

The weather has been fantastic: Consistently 16-20 degrees during the day, usually without a cloud in the sky. However, clouds aren't necessary here to obstruct one's vision: smog is as bad as many of you might think. By about 3pm, good luck if you can see across the water to Kowloon. Some of the exchange students have tried running outside and have found that their lung capacity was hampered by the smog. The food? Great, and cheap. My first meal was dumplings. I'm forced to buy into a meal plan at residence, but it's generally barely edible and many of us go to a mall ten minutes away for cheap restaurants. It is a rarity that I've spent more than $10 on a square meal here. So far I've stuck mostly to local cuisine, with the exception of one night in which I had sushi and another where I ate Bubba Gump Shrimp at the top of what is one of Hong Kong's highest points (The Peak).

I'm going to take a breath there and leave you with the requisite music selection. I made a mix before I left Toronto on December 31st, thus it's name. It definitely has its moments, but it was definitely made on the fly and could've been better. In any case, enjoy!

Dr. Dreidel - The New Year's Randommix
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=f81df8c

Van City

The New Home of Mats Sundin is a beautiful place. Instead of being used to snow as most Torontonians are with our fleet of snow plows, Vancouver is instead used to a constant torrent of rain, which i enjoyed during my brief 30 hours there. However, when it snows, as it did during the Canada-wide snow storm mid-December, they are incapable of dealing with the result. Many of the side-streets were still backlogged and full of snow.

As my flight to HK is beginning to board, i'll be brief.

Beautiful downtown, Gastown is a sick area for people my/our age (for those who are Torontonians, it's like moving the Distillery district into downtown, expanding it, and putting in more cool shops and restaurants). Hastings, only one block from the Gastown neighbourhood, is everything it's cracked (pun intended) up to be, and Stanley Park, which is an unbelievably short walk from downtown, is a beautiful place, with old growth forests keeping the city well-oxygenated. Lots of Japanese restaurants, and not of the western-type sushi-focused variety. There's an abundance of Izakaya-type restos. Ate at one for lunch (Ezogiku), and ate well. I'd like to go back in the summer.

Quick track to enjoy, for anybody who's going anywhere. Some Hip Hop to keep you bouncin.
Izza Kizza - Back to Miami
http://www.limelinx.com/files/03df05817f1ad8a5db1849284de34998

Next post will be from the other side of the world, likely in 2 days.

PEACE

Ps, somebody has a sense of humour:
For those who aren't uber-esoteric, "chill, winston" was a pretty amusing line from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Bags Packed, Ready to Go (Almost)

As the title says, my bags are almost packed and I'm ready to go. Still have to write a two-page paper on why I want to be an accountant for my obligatory summer courses: fun stuff.

At moments of anxiety or change, I tend to listen to low-key, breakbeatish music. In recent years, this has shifted to DFA-style tracks. The group that finds itself most on repeat is Holy Ghost! Based out of the BK, these guys make some great edits and remixes to tracks, most notably that of Moby's "I Like to Move in Here" earlier this year. They often collab with fellow DFAers The Juan MacLean and LCD Soundsystem to produce Nu-Disco orgasms. Recently, they dubbed out the Curses! (Drop The Lime) track "The Deep End", which also features LCD Soundsystem collaber Nancy Whang and The Juan MacLean on vocals. My interest in this song was probably helped on by a recent trip to NYC and New Year's at Sneaky Dees (few better tracks to ring in a new year than Happy House). Unfortunately, its 128 kbs but its hard to notice ;-)

Curses! - The Deep End (Holy Ghost! Day School Dub)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/524489396f9b0eb1/

Laziness and Apathy

So apparently it hasn't set in that I'm leaving in 3 days, packing's barely begun and I've wasted away, partially due to a post-new years-celebratory cold and also by sitting on my ass and watching an unnamed, slightly emasculating television show (Serena's mad hot though).

I recently had a nice gustatory experience at one of Canada's purported top Sushi restaurants, Sushi Kaji. Shared omakase with the missus and enjoyed the subtle taste creations of Kaji-San and his staff. Unfortunately, I mistook a layer of salt under a sea crab shell for the mountain potato that was described in the menu and enjoyed a nice 10 minute sodium shocker to the system. Meal was great, sushi was alright (New York fish > Toronto fish IMO), and I would visit again when I start generating some legit cash flow.

First Track I'm Posting (Tudor=music right? It was unavoidable):
Dirty Impact - All I Really Want (Barnes & Heatcliff Club Mix)
http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/92930194/file.html

This track was found thanks to the beauty of online music boards (Laidback Luke's website forum in this case) and a small purchase on Beatport. I had heard this track on a Laidback Luke mix back in October and had wanted to use it in a set, yet nobody had ID'ed it, even in the forums. I joined, posted a question asking if ANYBODY had since ID'ed the track, and somebody replied with the track information a few days later. While this won't incentivize me to live on the forumosphere like some shaggy characters I know (ahem....Truckle), it's made me realize that there are some friendly and helpful people out there online, and not just a lot of flamers and racist rednecks. The track itself is a great four to the floor electro-house track with a pulsating beat that just drives itself forward. Great mid-set track in an electro/progressive house mix, as it keeps the vibe going without being a banger itself.

Next post will hopefully be in Van City, where I have an inexplicable 36-hour layover. Anybody with suggestions of places to go in Downtown Vancouver for somebody with only a day to sightsee, please let me know. Left Side WUTT