very sloppy blog updates! here are two photos from last week. we went to the maison pourcel restaurant opening last week, the first photo is from the patio on the second floor, where we spent most of our time. bizarrely, the first floor of the restaurant was so packed you could hardly move and the second floor was completely empty, save for us and a lonely bartender who obligingly filled our glasses with more and more champagne. afterwards, we went to the nike TRIUMPH party on the bund, eventually we poured ourselves into bed.

we leave for our trip to the states/canada in exactly 8 days! i am so excited to get out of this country for a while – save for a quick weekend in Korea a few months ago, i haven’t left the country since CNY. we have a very busy schedule whilst in the states, and we’re managing to fit in visits with a ton of family members from both sides plus friends and friends and wondrous places and things to eat and see. excited!!!

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so my friend abe deyo texted me over the weekend and asked me what i was doing on saturday – i said i was mostly free but had some things going on, and i got a message back saying “how would you like to meet john galliano and be backstage at the dior show?” uhhhh, yeah, ok!

so i turn up on saturday and find that dior has set up a massive, half block long building right on top of the bund. crazy! the gig turned out to be 2nd photo assisting roxanne lowit, a lovely lady with the craziest portfolio. the entire experience was total madness, basically like everything you think about fashion in your brain but right there in your face. soooooo… kelis played the afterparty, the personalities in fashion are fantastic and crazy and hilarious, and you can see more on my flickr set HERE.

also, here are some things i learned:
a) the fashion world is way way way crazier than the advertising world (duh).
b) bernard arnault is not “bernard arnault”, but MR ARNAULT, always.
c) john galliano is amazing!
d) you have to rub stuff on a model’s legs before they walk. maybe something to do with the shine, but also because some of them have that gross anorexia hair.
e) everyone associated with dior is really, really tall.

xo

PS. took these photos on my crappy dinky tiny little sony cybershot, i think there’s something wrong with the focus…. wish i had taken more photos!

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this time of year is always filled with chinese new year celebrations, everyone’s having some kind of party and the weekends are a madhouse of bopping around and indulging in too much. on friday, we dropped by the Nike Year of the Tiger Cortez release party, with a performance by PET CONSPIRACY, a puppet show and more. afterwards, we hit up rodney and natasha’s Central Studios CNY bash and then stumbled over to shelter to see KIDFRESH play bananas. his music was a-maaazing, peep his blog HERE.

on saturday, i went to the jellymon cny dinner, they held it at this amazing private kitchen in XJH, one of the best chinese meals i’ve ever had, and not only was the food fantastic, but the jellymon family are such warm, funny, wonderful people – it’s so great to see a fresh creative agency with young, amazing talent. sitting down to dinner with all of them really made my evening, i’m really looking forward to seeing what great things they come up with in 2010.

also on saturday, john robinson’s house party! i’ve uploaded a flickr set here and that’s about all i’m going to say. if you’re looking for photos from my personal collection of that evening, just email me! rooahhaa.

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[from neochaEDGE]

To support and celebrate Liu Xiang’s successful comeback for the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix and China’s 11th National Games, Nike has released a documentary titled CHASE. The short film was produced by W+K Shanghai and is scored with three tracks from Chinese indie post-rock band and Neocha.com-user Wang Wen: Break the Car, Tian Jing (甜井), and 2005.1.26.

for more info: ENGLISH | CHINESE.

(ps. the photo above was taken on the w+k stairwell, where a liu xiang look alike hangs day in and day out, in perpetual mid-leap!)

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Nike Sportswear has just launched an amazing pop-up store on Changle Road (next to NPC – 139-15 Changle Rd) to celebrate the launch of the AW77 hoodie, and the W+K team went down to interview some peeps.

i took some photos of the chinese pop star and nike influencer jacky xue zhi qian, which can be seen on the china sportswear blog.

the pop up store is going to be open till saturday, and there’s a nike ID station set up in case you wanna blaze your name on your very own aw77 hoodie.

more photos coming soon!

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we’re sitting at an airport starbucks, waiting for our flight back to shanghai. feeling very tired but pleased and proud that the Nike running season has come to an end. here’s a couple photos from the last 24 hours, the very last one is one of our photographers this morning at 5am when we arrived at the event site. it was still pitchblack and very depressing. luckily, the skies opened up and there were blue skies, not to mention about 20,000 runners and a celebration concert at the end. more photos to come, but for now, yu bei pao and see you tonight at BADTASTIC!!

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sam’s brother + friend Josh got into town on Friday, and to celebrate, we headed out to a banquet dinner at southern barbarian where everyone stuffed their faces with yunnan food, the braver of us sampling a dish of deep fried bees (”bees?! BEADS. bees?! job’s not on board” aharharhar). afterwards, we walked for ages trying to find a cab, and instead ended up seeking refuge at the garden hotel, where we were treated to a view of the city, and bizarre, mid-90s-esque lounge singing sung by a Real Live lounge singer. from there, we walked (WALKED! shanghai, whaddup w/your lack of cabs?) to park 97 for the diesel party, another terrible brand party saved only by the fact that diplo + steve aoki were dj’ing. good music, douchey people, late nights. thanks, shanghai! xx. (ps. photo above by kidplastik).

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back in the office after a weekend in xi’an. adrian and i, along with our two awesome cameradudes were there to capture the xi’an leg of the nike human race – oh man, it rained and rained and it was cold and gray!

it was a fun trip but i’m glad to be back safe & sound in shanghai. i forgot my memory card so the photos above are adrian’s, check out his flickr for more.

took a couple hours out of the office and headed to luwan stadium for an afternoon with nike + lebron james. chinese kids did drills, played a couple of games, LBJ got on the court and performed some amazing mooooves. how depressing is it that the dude is only 24?! auggggh.

ps. sorry for the weird quality photos, blaaaargh.

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