Barbie World

Too many Barbie girls living in a Shanghai Barbie World.

Shanghai girls love the idea of Barbie so much, that the 1st and ONLY official Barbie Flagship store in the world was built this year in Shanghai. With that being said I had to register for my very own Official Barbie Passport.

Although, Shanghai is the fashion capital of China, its fashion, although diverse, is too "Barbie" for me. I often see girls prancing around wearing lots of pink outfits with ruffles, short skirts, belly shirts, and tops with their bras extremely visible.



One day a student came in wearing a Sailor Moon Outfit (there is no such thing as Chinese Halloween). I wish I had a hidden camera, since words cannot express the outfits I have been forced to witness on a daily basis teaching at a Fashion School.

My friend, Nina and I, joke all the time, about how they look like Junior High School girls learning to dress themselves for the first time, often by showing as much skin as possible, wearing white shirts with black bras, with layers of makeup caked on, and 7" high heels waiting for prince charming to rescue them. Don't get me started on their obsession for bleaching their skin white and putting stickers on their eyes to make an extra fold as seen below. I am not below any of these things myself, but its just strange to me and not something I can get use to.


To say all of Shanghai, would be an unfair generalization, but if your lucky on a hot muggy day, you'll catch some men wearing wife-beater tank tops with their shirts rolled up just high enough to cool off their bellies. Sometimes, you will only get a half belly, other times a full one, but if you are really lucky, you can catch a glimpse of a guy riding to work in nothing but boxershorts.



Since being half naked in public seems to be permissible, then so is sleepwear. I ran after this guy for 2 blocks to get a picture of this dashing young man in his silk pajamas, with a young pretty girl at his side. Rumor has it that wearing pajamas use to be a sign of wealth since people back in the day only had one outfit and could not afford PJs. Due to the Shanghai 2010 Expo, lots of things have been banned, pajama wearing being one of them. So see you after the Expo is over Pajama Boy.