one of my faves...

Top 5 Fashion Faux Pas in FuYang...So Far. 
**this was an email written and sent during my first week in china, which was the height of summer, and these sightings were from one day out of the dorms.


these are actual sightings:

5. a woman in a pretty decent dress...and house slippers in bright pink with a big gawdy flower on the top.

4. totally saw a guy today in an unbuttoned dress shirt and dingy looking underwear. you would think he was dressed this way (the unbuttoned shirt and lack of leg coverings) in order to keep cool in the oppressive heat and humidity. but the shirt was long sleeved. so...impractical, to say the least.

3. dude buying a new phone wearing a shiny dress shirt in black with big purple circles on it hanging out of a pair of faded black and white striped sweat pants. the sandles he chose with this ensemble were a quite fashionable pair of black adidas. oh, yes...and a visor on his head. i think we may be seeing this on runways in paris soon.

2. an adult man wearing really bright blue and yellow crocs. personally, i don't think anyone over the age of 5 should be wearing these shoes in these colors, but that's not necessarily the faux pas. it was the pairing with his grey dress slacks and green polo shirt. oh, yes...and the fanny pack.

and the top of our fashion trend setting chart this week:

1. men folding up their shirts over their chests to bare their midriffs. now, i realize that this was a popular trend for women a while back and still somewhat hangs around today. but that was with women and only for those with a flat and toned tummy (hopefully). these fashionistas are not women, have paunches that extend further than their chests, and have not even had the decency to pierce their belly buttons to at least give us something shiny and pretty to look at when forced to land our gaze their way. 

while i would like to blame these, and those that didn't make the top 5, "what not to wear" examples on the country's backwardness, i have to admit to have witnessed some pretty similar, as well as much stranger, in california. thank you, hollywood, for bridging the ethnic fashion gap for us.