ISpyShanghai

Every tuesday here on ISpy we take a look into the fascinating world of footwear.

It’s a wild ride my friend, so come with me now, step into my weekly world of shoes….

This week I received a letter through the electronic mail.

Dear Dr Swiss

as we all know, the hot look that’s wowing the fashion world right now is the Shanghainese Street Sweeper.

I’ve got my faded blue coveralls, the hair full of cigarette ash and have grown my little fingernail to the required 3 inches. When it comes to the shoes though, I have hit a major snafu.

Me and Kate Moss were shopping down at Carrefour when we bought what we thought were genuine FeiYue shoes, and yet something doesn’t feel right with them. Have I bought fakes?

Help me Dr Swiss, you’re my only hope.

Mackers.

xx

Well Mackers- firstly, you’ve come to the right place (so that’s good news), however you have bought fakes (so that’s bad news). Do you know what though, when it comes to that funky oppressed Chinese peasant look- what could be more authentic than fakes? They’re probably rarer than the real thing too.

For the best selection of the real thing (including some one-off custom jobs) head down to Culture Matters on Dongping Lu (near Henghsan Lu- opposite Vargas Grill). For the fakes- head down to the docks and look for a guy with a wheelbarrow full of nail clippers, pan scrubbers, and shoes that say “FeiYin”.

Real uns down at Culture Matters

It’s Halloween coming up- the time when condemned souls walk the earth, rivers run with blood of unknown provenance and children will find their plastic Vampire teeth mildly uncomfortable.

I was walking around by Yu Yuan at the weekend (the old town really- those side streets near Yu Yuan) and I spotted a bunch of halloween decorations for sale.

Deeply chilling I’m sure you’ll agree- I would give the address for the shop but when I went back to find it the next day…IT HAD COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED*

I’m still in two minds about my costume- a lot of people have said that when I take my shirt off I look a lot like Jason Stackhouse from True Blood, but others have said I’m a dead ringer for Don Draper out of Mad Men.

*Not really- in Nanshi (near the Bund) try:
225 FuYou Lu near Anren Lu
福佑路225号 近安仁路

If you’re in Gubei / Hongqiao you can get decorations at my buddy Steven’s parents place:

Star Box
Shop E16 Hongqiao Flower Market

Every hipster in Shanghai has a pair of either Warriors or FeiYue. They’re awesome and comfortable, but pretty soon Russell Crowe is going to be spotted wearing a pair and the jig will be up.

When that dark day happens here are three alternatives:

Shoes that say “I L <crown> VE Shanghai”

Pros: Excellent ankle protection against shopping trolleys and sniper fire.

Cons: Ugly as sin, make you look like a golf club.

Ying Yang Shoes

Pros: Buddhists believe

“Maitri or Metta in Pali (Loving Kindness) and Karuna (Compassion) to all living beings including animals”

and since these shoes aren’t leather- you’ll have Pali coming out of your ying-yang

Cons: Shoes appear to have been a pile of wet laundry in a previous life.

Electrician safety shoes

Pros: Protection from faulty cables up to a maximum of 250Kw, assuming dry conditions.

Cons: You don’t think they actually work do you?

Can’t make full sentences!! Too excited!!

Arcade Games! Time Crisis 2, 3 & 4! Harley Davidson + Hummer driving games! Shooting up baddies- playing the drums- bashing rats with a hammer!

The place is enormous- an entire floor of a shopping mall- get there NOW.

Players Arena 8F
New Century World Shopping Mall
Nanjing Dong Lu / Xizang Lu (basically- People’s Square)

Both Shanghaiist and the LA Times have been talking about how the locals behave in Ikea: sleeping on the beds, clambering all over the furniture, pooping in the display toilets and treating the place like a cheap cafeteria.

I’ve never been to an Ikea in any other country, so I don’t see anything unusual in that kind of behaviour (which is probably what Mrs Josef Fritzl said to the police).

Anyway it’s a great place to try out a new camera, as you can take people’s photos and they think you’re just looking at the furniture. I took my new 4 lens super-3d effect camera.

This was the best one.

Super 4 lens 3d camera

Well just after stoking a raging inferno of comment fire on the merits of Italian restaurants in Shanghai, this delivery menu landed on my desk.

I’m guessing they didn’t fly a top pizza chef in from Tuscany to come up with the “Abseriction Orchard”, and I do wonder how many other ingredients they tried alongside “Meat Gut” before they decided that pineapple was just the ticket.

The potato special sounds particularly insipid

It sounds so bad that it would be worth trying- sadly though they only deliver to Pudong.

If anyone in the ‘Dong is feeling brave, I’d love to hear what these things taste like. In fact I DOUBLE DARE YOU.

“Share My Way” Pizza

tel: 5844363 (open 10am-10pm)

Continue Reading »

When dirty foreign apes first arrive in China they think certain stuff is cool: Chairman Mao watches, bikes overloaded up with polystyrene boxes (sorry Nik) and Haibao.

After a while though you get tired of that stuff, and start to find the next tier of Chineseosity cool: Shanghai watches, electric bike accidents and Haibao Mexicano.

No contest is there?

Many of these second-tier cool items can be found in a shop called The Thing.

Continue Reading »

There’s a small shopping arcade for losers next to Jing-An Temple. I went there on Saturday.

It’s called Comic Plaza or some such thing, so I was expecting it to be full of awkward teenage boys completing their Power Rangers collection instead of shaving off their wispy upper-lip hair and getting some sunlight. Whilst there was a little of that- there was also a bunch of stuff I just did not understand at all.

After about an hour in there, I felt confused, disorientated and out of my depth- just like those teenage boys probably feel when staring at the ground in front of an attractive woman.

Most of the stuff didn’t even seem to be aimed at boys- there were lots of weird clothes that Avril Lavigne might wear if she was a prostitute, key rings that look like sushi, perverted toilet signs, and comic books where one Japanese schoolboy forces himself on another.

I think it's called "When lunch money isn't enough"

Who can possibly need a passport cover that says “Prince of Tennis” on it?

Why is Tim Burton’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas” still culturally relevant?

When would I ever want to listen to a CD featuring the music from Final Fantasy VI?

I was tempted for 35RMB, but not sure what it really says about me

Presumably it all makes a lot more sense if you’re full of teenage hormones, hate your teachers, and are convinced that your parents spend all day long thinking of ways to make your life miserable.

The plan was to pick up a few quirky model robots for my nephew, instead I ended up with a headache and a sour taste in my mouth. Oh and a cute purse for my niece.

Seaweed monsters: Not for sale

Weirdo Arcade For Misfits- 1856 Nanjing Lu, near Changshu Lu

To find out more about this place- read what Morgan at Smart Shanghai thought.

Continue Reading »