Shanghai Street Style

Although fashion fixtures and A-list celebrities pack the front rows at the biggest, most glamorous shows at fashion week, the most creative attire is often found not on the catwalks or inside the auditoriums but on the streets. Nowhere is this more evident than in the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, where a vintage Vivienne Westwood frock pairs perfectly with a chic puffer, and neon brights elevate distressed denim to veritable haute couture.

Shanghai Street Style marksthe inaugural volume in an exciting new street style series from Intellect. With an array of up-and-coming young designers like Coko Wan, Nio, and Helen Lee, Shanghai is swiftly cementing its status as a global fashion destination--its first fashion week was in 2011--and this book brings together more than one hundred full-color photographs showcasing the remarkable diversity of styles seen on its streets. Alongside the photographs are short pieces of critical commentary by Vicki Karaminas and Toni Johnson-Woods, shedding light on the city’s changing culture and how this is expressed through the clothing choices of ordinary city-dwellers going about their daily routines. The result is a stunning street-level look at the trends shaping Shanghai’s fascinating fashion scene, with interesting echoes of East meets West and old meets new. Eye-catching, entertaining, and informative, Shanghai Street Style gets at the roots of Shanghai trendsetters’ distinct personal styles, identifying the ideas and important cultural forces behind the trends.

Vicki Karaminas is associate professor of fashion studies and associate head of the School of Design at the University of Technology, Sydney in Australia. Toni Johnson-Woods is a senior lecturer in the School of English, Media Studies, and Art History at the University of Queensland, Australia.