Guardian clothing nerdgasm

[marycrawford]

wenella_subs posted some images from Guardian that I've never seen before - early costume options for Shen Wei, mostly. And they're so fascinatingly wrong. Those thick-framed glasses!

Shen Wei is also fascinatingly wrong - he doesn't look like himself, yet. His smile is somewhere halfway between Shen Wei and Ye Zun. If I wanted to be Watsonian about this photo, I would say that it was Shen Wei trying for a full 'nerdy academic' look. Just to be safe, because they were taking his photograph for his University ID, and he had no idea if the image was going to leak dark energy around the edges or anything.

And then this wrong!Shen Wei wore this cardigan and I have to laugh. It's too drapey and doesn't fit him right, the color is blah, and just as Lao Xie imagined in my story for sakana17, it is all kinds of wrong on him. It's not quite maroon, but it's so close!

“Hmmm,” said Lao Xie. He was walking around Shen Wei now, slowly and carefully, tottering artistically now and then before going back to his murder stalk. “What color? What fabric?” His hand shot out, to pinch at a fold of Shen Wei’s suit jacket. Shen Wei had carefully chosen his most conservative three-piece suit for this appointment, in an attempt to pacify his tailor for not coming to see him in several months. An attempt that had backfired as soon as he uttered the dreadful word ‘leisurewear.’

“Navy,” Shen Wei reported. “With a white bar on the arm. And—cashmere.” He admitted, “I bought it in heather grey, as well.” The cardigans were soft and silky to the touch. Not like armor. Much more inviting. More—approachable.

Lao Xie paused for a long moment, then sniffed. “At least you have not lost your reason entirely. I was expecting you to say maroon, or salmon pink, or something even more offensive, like acrylics. What else did you buy?”

(from Tailor-made)

The cardigans Shen Wei actually wore on the show look infinitely better on him, like this one. (Image is from sakana17 's Guardian costume gallery, a fabulous resource.)

And also this one, in heather grey, perfect for flirting sweetly with your boyfriend:



(It's not actually a cardigan, it's a sweater or a pullover, but I like imagining Shen Wei's confusion about those terms, not least because US clothing terms are often a mystery to me as well.)

And just in case you like digging into this silly stuff as much as I do - in our world, these pullovers are by Thom Browne, a US brand recognizable by the four bar pattern on the arm, and they cost ridiculous money. Here's the 4-bar cashmere pullover for only $1590 (choke).

So I have to wonder - did these brands sponsor this show? Because Shen Wei does wear a lot of Thom Browne. Or is the rumor that the actors wore some of their own clothing on the show to save money true?

Comments

[cyberbrain]

Ahhh, wow!! I'm absolutely floored!

...So I did what I always do and went to take a closer look and now I'm thinking that maybe some of these are knock offs? :D This sweater, for example, if I compare Shen Wei's and the one you linked, the neck is different (Shen Wei's has a wider stitch between the collar and the body) and the shoulders too (Shen Wei's sleeves are more triangular at the top, while the photo on the Tom Browne site shows them as flat (I mean the connection between the sleeve and the body)). Also, Shen Wei's white stripes seem wider (and the distance between them is narrower) than on the "real" photo.

[marycrawford]

now I'm thinking that maybe some of these are knock offs?

Oh, huh, maybe? Of course the menswear could also have changed its details in the interim - I was surprised that I was able to find a match as close as this! It feels weird to me to dress actors for what was planned as a blockbuster show (before the budget fell through!) in knockoffs, but I have no idea what the Chinese POV on that is.