Happy Halloween!, Shanghai

To take a bit of a break from posting about Shanghai Fashion Week, here’s a quick Halloween update from Shanghai before I go to Beijing next week for Xander Zhou‘s SS12 presentation (kinda part of Fashion Week) and some other shows/business.

So anyway, back to Halloween… Despite being a few days before the actual holiday, people were out in droves on Saturday night to celebrate. I was really surprised how decked out everyone got considering there is really no costume store, as I saw everything from Angry Birds to skeletons to the Gingerbread Man (mostly self-made costumes)! But there were two very pervasive trends this Halloween… the first was obviously cross-dressing, as we Asians already have an androgynous disposition:

There was a tiny geisha, a Shanghai aiyi with a showercap, and out from behind the geisha popped a bright pink… maid?

And yes, these were all boys, but I mean cross-dressing was totally expected…

But Smurfs? In Shanghai?! Do Chinese people know about Smurfs somehow? This was only one Smurf… (and I am pretty sure he was a Chinese Smurf, or at least looked Chinese).

But I saw a weirdly large amount of Smurfs on Halloween, like whole groups of Smurfs! I think I even saw a Smurfette, but that costume wasn’t as solid as this guy’s, cause I can’t really remember it… But this guy is supposed to be Papa Smurf, right?

Anyway, I love the commitment to this costume, but it seems his party left blue him all alone on the street, and I saw him disappear into the darkness. And that was the last thing I remember from Halloween…

Best Dressed Generation:
Gen X – 180 points
Gen Y – 100 points + 25 points for being so creative (most costumes were not bought ready-made) = 125 points
Gen Z – 30 points

*Gen Y will definitely get some major points for its contributions to Fashion Week, but I want to see what happens in Beijing before I decide how much to give them overall… And Gen Z will definitely get some attention soon… And while I’m away I’ll schedule some special posts about China’s 56 ethnic minorities. So check back!