Fashion Follies

Department stores that I've been to here have often put on shows to promote certain brands. They most frequently feature underwear or lingerie, which understandably draw huge crowds of slack-jawed males, and seems surprisingly risque in what is ostensibly a moralistic and Communist country.

Then again, I've seen serious commentary to the effect that the regime tolerates all the sex shops, 'colourful' adverts, and barely hidden prostitution because all these things actually promote marital and societal stability. Who knew?
Unfortunately, this post isn't about underpants, but Goldlion. Goldlion is a terrible brand that makes terrible businesswear for businesspeople with no taste. Recently, they've launched a 休闲生活 ('leisure-life') line that includes terrible casualwear for the aforementioned businesspeople.

Despite the 大便-itude of the clothes themselves, the Chinese love of 闹 (noise or liveliness, amusingly comprising the characters 鬥 or 'fight' and 市 or 'market' - a fight in a market!) meant that the 'fashion' 'show' they threw to celebrate the launch drew a huge crowd. Ever mindful of the principle of 入乡随俗 ('When entering a town, go along with the customs' or 'When in Rome...') I stuck around too.

A bevy of leggy, dangerously thin BOBFOC models paraded ugly tops that complemented nicely their ugly trousers. To demonstrate what kind of successful lifestyle you too might have, if only you'd buy into this brand, a bunch of male models pouted their way onto the catwalk too, arm-in-arm with the girls.

After all the professional walking, standing, and more walking, a couple of no-name hosts came out and organised a quiz with some of the lucky audience members. Questions included "How much of a discount are we offering today?" (the answer was 10% off*), and "What animal is the Goldlion brand based on?". Astoundingly, not only was this asked in front of a giant Lion logo, and followed with a multiple choice selection that was accentuated thus: "A Horse, B Pig, C LION ..." the quizee needed two guesses to get it right! The sole prize offered was a card offering 15% off in their store for that day. I think it's fair to say, everyone was a winner.

*The Chinese system is based on 折 which is the percentage of the original price, denominated in 10% increments. 10% off is thus 9折, (the surprisingly popular) 12% off is 8.8折, and half price is 5折 or 半折 ('half-discount'). It sounds complicated. It is.