ARTS & LIFE

CITY SNAPSHOT

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AEL Studio

Amy Lin is a 34-year-old fashion designer from Guangzhou. She has been running her brand Amyenjoylife, also known as AEL Studio, for five years. “I spend most of my time understanding the lifestyle and fashion preferences of my customers,” she tells That’s. “I also like to experience different lifestyles and discover new cultural elements. Throughout the year, my main responsibility is to formulate design ideas and sales goals. We make trendy clothes and have four different types: evening, street, elegant and holiday.”

“The brand’s inspiration reflects independence, self-confidence, innovation, individuality, freedom and comfort. Our designs integrate these elements together. The clothing styles are unconstrained and fully embody the fun of a mix-and-match style. We ecourage individuality and a personalized style of fashion.” Scan the QR code to visit the website or the Taobao store.

OVERHEARD “[Eileen Gu is] far from the first American to compete for a parent’s country even if they are good enough to qualify for the American team. Why is Gu so controversial whereas Jasmine CamachoQuinn and Mondo Duplantis at last year’s Olympics were not?”

Wrote Mai Mai Lin-Healy in a heated thread on Facebook regarding skier Eileen Gu’s decision to represent China. American-born Gu has admitted the choice to represent China at this year’s Winter Olympics was a difficult one. Since she was young, Gu has been American in the US and Chinese in China, with strong roots in both countries. Gu represents the common difficulties of third culture kids and Chinese American children living in one country with heritage tied to another.

Flickr @ Ross Dunn

COVET Aubercy Men’s Shoes

aubercy.com

This high-quality brand of classy men’s shoes has a range of ready-to-wear, madeto-measure and bespoke creations. In Paris or Tokyo where they can actually be bought, these hoof-canoes start off at RMB9,000. Their craft has been handed down through three family generations since 1935 and they still follow methods from years past. Even their ready-to-wear shoes have a total of 390 stages of construction and take a month to make, in everything from their leather selection to the hand stitched Goodyear welt. Though you might cough at the hefty investment, sustainable shoes with replaceable bottoms will save you money in the long run. Their stylish shoes will certainly turn heads for decades.

> View shoes at aubercy.com

UNDER THE LENS

Angelababy and Huang Xiaoming Officially Divorced

After years of rumored marital distress, Angelababy’s missing wedding ring and their apparent public aversion to one another, Angelababy and Huang Xiaoming are separating. The star-crossed duet announced their divorce via social media shortly before the Chinese New Year. The split is amicable and they intend to continue to co-parent their five year old son. The two megastars will likely be under the eagle eye of media as they transition into new lives past divorce and maybe new romances. Huang Xiaoming has admitted in the past that he married Angelababy due to his mother’s admiration of the star, which some will certainly argue is not the best foundation for a long lasting marriage. Angelababy left Huang’s talent agency last year, resulting in her landing a new role in the drama Twilight Heart Covenant. Her new agency, Yuekai Entertainment, represents a large number of A-list celebrities in Asia.

CITY SNAPSHOT @jason.changvvv

Jason Chang is a professional, commercial photographer originally from Wuhan. Chang has lived intermittently in Guangzhou and Foshan for the last 16 years. Along with photography, he and his team also work in videography. Chang’s IG account seems to have been evolving over the past year from people to places, and when asked about that change, Chang explained much of his current work on display is selected based on clients and their needs. Though he has spent a good deal of time in portraits and product photography, he prefers to shoot architectural and still life photos, mostly coming from the inspiration of his life. “It could be from a movie I saw or a random thought when I was exercising. My work expresses my understanding of life through pictures, video and sound.”