Asian Connection

Whenever the fashion of the far east is discussed, most people speak of Japan, the bithplace of such streetsyle looks as lolita, visual kei, and fruits. But Japan isn't the only country in the far east that has amazing style. Click the Read More! link to get some inspiration from China.

I've mentioned my love of Asian drama series before, and I've just started watching Patriotic Knights, a kung fu drama from China.

I love the feathers in the guy on the left hand side's hair! Though it's hard to see in the picture. So free spirited and child of the sun.

Patrtiotic Knights, in the true way of soap operas, has a very complicated plot. Since I just started watching, I'm not clear on the whole thing though it seems clear that love triangles, Rube Goldberg-esque schemes, and melodrama will win the day. Punctuated with awesome kung fu fighting filled with the great trash talk that I love in Chinese kung fu movies, it's infinitely more bearable than American soap operas and has sucked me right in. Check out Jonah Lee Walker's Asian and US Movie Reviews blog for a review and plot summary.

As for the costumes, well they're a visual delight. They seem to feature a solid-colored overcoat type thing in a bold hue that looks amazing on the wearer. Underneath the coat they wear some sort of patterned tunic-dress-thing that picks up the color of the overcoat thing. Most of the characters also have a solid colored undershirt in a contrasting color to the overcoat.

Many of the characters also sport fantastic feathers and/or headbands in their hair.



I love all the feathers used in the costumes. The feathers combined with the skillful use of tie-dye, which I didn't even notice until I looked for the stills, make it seem a sort of Chinese hippie/boho-chic. The poorer characters seem to use the tie-dye as their pattern while the richer characters sport more elaborate motifs. I wasn't quite convinced by the big designers and fashion magazines that tie-dye was chic, but this series makes a very good argument for it, a year or two before the designers I might add.


Yan Yan, pictured above, has my absolute favorite costume of the group so far though. I gasped with joy when I first saw her fantastic color pairing in the screen-cap at the top of this page. She was originally wearing the scarf as a hood, which cai=ught my attention, but it's not until the hood fell that we get to see the true joys of the color combo in her costume. I mentioned before being enamored of that blushing sort of pink with blue seen here and here; now I shall have to try combining it with forest green. It's so Robin Hood meets Legend of Zelda in Final Fantasy's early adventures, back before the Final Fantasy artists decided that their men needed leather bras.

I also love those feathers in her hair! Anyone know what they are because I need some. And i love the waist detail! And, and I love the perfect shots of yellow in the green which make it look like the rays of the sun bursting out of her waist! And, and...

Hyperventilating with love,

Ivy Frozen