Haute couture in the middle kingdom

When my Mother in law came home today she had a nice present for me. Sure enough, I was the happy recipient of a Chinese remix and free-form interpretation fashion design inspired by Versace. The black part covering the shoulders in actually a deep purple corduroy with the bold statement "voguesport" emblazoned in velour.

Underneath the corduroy we have what I believe is an attempt at a Versace logo which says jeans classic in the middle with velour tribal tattoo design outlined in sparkly fabric paint dots. The material is very stretchy and has a lot of lycra in it. It is made of about the same stuff as the other shirt, another gift from my mother in law.

This other treasure she found when she was out in the morning shopping for vegetables. It was also 50RMB or just under 7 dollars US. Same price as the previous one, except I happened to notice that the list price on the tag of the fake Versace was 538 RMB, or about 73 USD at the current exchange rate. This is about half of a monthly salary of a regular factory worker in a more well to do area such as this one. Lucky we got more than 90% off.
This beauty is a stunning shade of light blue. They say it goes really well with my blue eyes and they can't help telling me that I look good in anything because my skin is so white. In fact I was just told the picture was cute because I look so white. I don't think my mother would want me after seeing that picture, but each to their own I guess. I certainly wouldn't paint my face with shoe polish just to spite them.

The blue piece may also be a more loose ripoff, but its probably more designed in the spirit of ripoff than directly copying logos. The caption reads "Lilang casual fasion" and three letters, apparently chosen at random, are covered in tiny glittering plastic beads.

I wish i had a picture of my Chinese shirt i bought in Tianjin with my friend Andrew in 2002. It was horizontal stripes of varying widths in black green and orange. I couldn't bring myself to wear it after I got home which is a shame. I should have brought it back here with me, really a work of art.