Shanghai Shopping

[TornnLost]

Shopping in Shanghai

Anyone lived or been there b4? Tips?

 

[haoshcn]

I am from Shanghai. Which kinds of shopping are you looking for? International designers' boutiques? Affordable department stores? Or inexpensive tailor-made clothes comapred with the US and Europe? It really depends on what you are interested in, then I might be able to help you with some useful information.

 

[ShanaLucas]

Having just returned from Shanghai, I must say that Shanghai has everything you can possibly imagine. For lovers of fashion...for shopping addicts...Shanghai is heaven.

 

[TornnLost]

Shana, do tell more Might be going there soon.........what exactly do you mean by Shanghai has everything you could want?High-end or low-end?

 

[flashchance]

Shanghai is my hometown. The weather is comparative wet and changeable.
There is no hill in the city. There are many narrow sideways and houses.
Shanghai always have the most population from country wide (and world wide). Public traffic has been improved --- not so close-packed and waiting long time than years ago. Still building... ..., B)

Shanghai has 6 times larger ground than HK , Shanghai is more conventional than HK.

Though so many population, it has the best public security !

Shanghai peri is the most smart and sweet in China !

It is complete a shopping heaven, as "Easten Paris", many people think so.

Shanghai is more big, more exoteric and more osculated with international
tide then before. And PuDong area has been empoldered and developping very Fast.

 

[flashchance]

Obviously More and more foreigners I can meet in streets.
There are more and more international brand/designer copies (notice:different quality, well-cuted, not bad) and Sino conventional designer.ect...fresh items in these years. B)

Yes, Incroyable said "labels prices are much higher due to import duties".
Not only "Mandarin collared jackets". Not only these travel industry sites.
::ld Shanghai city (west area of Shanghai::
:::new Shanghai city (east area of Shanghai::

There are kinds of characteristic streets deal in chracteristic
merchandise.Some of them are century famouse brand.
Many markets has been builded or moved.

Unique bargains! Western copies in cheep!

But I do not know how " bring those in through customs "???

...finally finish my write...

 

[TornnLost]

thanks Flash.......what's the weather like between June to Sept?

 

[muckto]

haha that's what I'm wondering. I know the pirated DVD's come in those really thin packets but still 500 is a crapload. I get paranoid bringing one pirated DVD back from Hong Kong.

When I flew back from Pudong to Paris CDG, customs in China were after booze, they confiscated two little bottles of chinese wine.

They totally ignored my 82 DVDs...then in Paris, I landed at 5:30 so the customs officers were still in bed, I mean this is France, what do you expect?!!

 

[TornnLost]

Anyone know if any shops in Shanghai carry Balenciaga or Louboutin?

 

[haoshcn]

Anyone know if any shops in Shanghai carry Balenciaga or Louboutin?

Hi TornnLost, I am sorry I didn't write to you two days ago as I promised. I was just very busy with my work. When are you going to visit Shanghai?

I've never been to either Hongkong or Singapore. But based on what I learnt about Hongkong's shopping scene from different sources, I'll say Shanghai is not yet comparable to Hongkong in terms of shopping scene. To me, Hongkong's designer clothing shopping might be even better than NYC. Shanghai does have almost all the big desingers lables, but the selections are generally not so satisfactory. I am in the US now, but I was from Shanghai and just went back home three months ago. I checked almost all the luxury stores and designer boutiques when I was there and I do have some knowledge about shopping in several big cities in the US, so I'll say my judegment is quite reliable. Shanghai might be comparable to or even better than Chicago or San Francisco in terms of shopping, but definitely not NYC or even LA yet.

But there're still some very nice stores in Shanghai. There're two places I think you should visit if you have limited amount of time. The first one is the fashion boutique at "Three on the Bund", particularly it's women section. That's a world-class store, definitely something comparable to Barneys New York on Madison Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman if that makes any sense to you. It carries YSL, Vanessa Bruno, Anne Valerie Hash, Marni, Azzaro, Bottega Veneta, John Galliano, Chloe, so on and on, and also very impressively big selections of Yohji Yamamoto (also Y's) and Ann Demeulemeester. I saw very beautiful runway pieces of Yohji when I was there.

The second one is Plaza 66 which you might have already heard of. That's basically an ultra-expensive shopping mall, including individual boutiques like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Chanel, Dior, Dior Homme, Fendi, Marni, Jil Sander, Versace, Moschino, Paul Smith, Loewe, so on and on, it's almost like you name it, they have it. I can't say much about the selections in all the boutiques. I didn't check most of them last time. But my guess is they tend to buy safe and conservative items, instead of really unique and creative runway pieces. But it's a place worth visiting. On both sides of Plaza 66, there're some other designer stores on the same street called Nanjing Xi Lu. Gucci, Marc Jacobs and Salvatore Ferragamo (actually also a Stefano Ricci boutique ) at Shanghai Centre, Chloe, Kenzo, Max Mara, Bally and Lagerfeld at CITIC square, Burberry and Versace at Westgate Mall. That neighbourhood has the highest density of luxury stores in Shanghai.

There's only one place where you can find Balenciaga's clothes in Shanghai, that's the I.T store at Xin Tian Di (a big entertainment and shopping complex). I.T Xin Tian Di carries quite a few other designers. You can check www.ithk.com to find the namelist. I saw very beautiful Balenciaga pieces (even some Balenciaga Edition stuff) for women when I there, not sure about the other designers. I did't find that I.T's men stuff that much impressive though (I am a guy myself). They mostly bought conservative and easy things. The other I.T store at Plaza 66 only has Balenciaga's bags, no clothes. Xin Tian Di also has some other stores, like a French designer boutique called Biche de Bere, a local Chinese designer boutique called ZucZug, both are quite unusual and interesting places I'll recommend.

In terms of more affordable department store shopping, my recommendation will be places like Parkson on Huai Hai Road and Grand Gateway Mall at Xu Jia Hui. Xu Jia Hui is one of the major shopping and entertainment neighbourhoods in Shanghai, very very crowded all the time. There are quite a few mid- or upper-mid-price range departmnet stores at Xu Jia Hui.

As for interesting and cheap open market. I don't have much to say since I don't know much about them and they also change locations very rapidly. My guess will be places like XiangYang Market, but I heard that it's being closed because of the big concern of fake designer goods.

Overall I don't recommend people buying designers clothes in Shanghai, unless they have unlimited budgets or find something they really love and can't find back in their hometown (although that's a bit politically incorrect since I am supposed to help with the develpoment of our economy back in Shanghai ). European designers' stuff are siginifantly more expensive than Hongkong or the US (don't know about the comparison with Tokyo) because of the tariff specially imposed on imported luxury goods.

That's all of it. Hope it helps. Wish you a pleasant trip to Shanghai!

 

[TornnLost]

thanks so much for your super long answer so you think the designer prices will be significantly higher than say, HK? Cos I just went there and the prices seemed more or less to be on par or only slightly higher than the US/online prices.
Have a few more questions that I can hope you help me with.
What will the weather be like in June-Sept?
Regarding non-designer shopping, I'm not so much interested in department stores but more in unique maybe locally made street fashion. Are there any areas in Shanghai that has such shopping?
In terms of food what's the must-try dish when I am there?
thanks so much for being so helpful

 

[haoshcn]

thanks so much for your super long answer so you think the designer prices will be significantly higher than say, HK? Cos I just went there and the prices seemed more or less to be on par or only slightly higher than the US/online prices.
Have a few more questions that I can hope you help me with.
What will the weather be like in June-Sept?
Regarding non-designer shopping, I'm not so much interested in department stores but more in unique maybe locally made street fashion. Are there any areas in Shanghai that has such shopping?
In terms of food what's the must-try dish when I am there?
thanks so much for being so helpful

You are welcome. I do think the prices of European designer clothings are higher in Shanghai than Hongkong and the US because of the higher tariff in China. I made comparison for the same items myself. Some stores (Zegna is the best example) may intentionally keep the price on par with even Europe, but that's done at the cost of losing chunk of profits and not very common.

Shanghai's weather is very hot and humid in Summer (although still much better than places like Bangkok in that aspect ). The highest temperature could be easily above 35 celsius degree, sometimes almost 38, 39. June is usually the rainy season.

I don't know much about the so-called street fashion since I have very little interest in it and I am also a bit too old for it. I doubt there's really a street fashion scene in Shanghai. I also doubt there's really any creative street fashion anywhere across the whole Asia except Japan. It seems to me that most so-called "trendy" and "edgy" young kids in Shanghai (probably also Hongkong) are merely copycats of Japanese (or in a even worse case, Korean) street fashion. I did come across of a label called "That's a Thing" (or something similiar to that) in Shanghai last time. They mostly make T-shirts and sweatshirts, with unusual prints (like sh*t covered with LV logo). You can find some of their stuff at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art).

 

[J'aime_la_mode]

Thanks for all the information! I soon hope to travel to the Beijing area and this is all so useful!

 

[mandarine]

can anyone recommend good chinese highstreet stores in shanghai, comparable topshop or h&m?

or in general good areas or streets for highstreet fashion?

 

[xcoldricex]

shanghai shopping sucks. all the high end stores are there just so the designers can put "shanghai" in their list of cities. people there aren't really fashionable- the wealthy people have all their money in real estate and very few of them are buying high fashion. even the low end market isn't all that great either- you can find better clothes in beijing/shenzhen/guangzhou.

 

[Honey~Blade]

I know there's cool stuff in Beijing/Shenzhen...but Guangzhou is kinda dull, well menswear anyhow.

 

[haoshcn]

shanghai shopping sucks. all the high end stores are there just so the designers can put "shanghai" in their list of cities. people there aren't really fashionable- the wealthy people have all their money in real estate and very few of them are buying high fashion. even the low end market isn't all that great either- you can find better clothes in beijing/shenzhen/guangzhou.

Are you kidding me? Have you ever been to Shanghai and done any shopping at all the high-end stores in Shanghai? BTW, did you get the impression from that stupid article about the luxury shopping in Shanghai published on LA Times recently? Please read my previous posts in this thread or do some serious shopping at Plaza 66, Three on the Bund, I.T Xin Tian Di, blah blah blah before you make any judgement about the shopping scene in Shanghai.

 

[Artemis]

The street markets in Shanghai are pretty good, although some of them have been closed down. Haggle the vendors to death.

And about getting pirated DVDs through customs, hide them in the lining of your suitcase or in your folded clothes.

 

[xcoldricex]

Are you kidding me? Have you ever been to Shanghai and done any shopping at all the high-end stores in Shanghai? BTW, did you get the impression from that stupid article about the luxury shopping in Shanghai published on LA Times recently? Please read my previous posts in this thread or do some serious shopping at Plaza 66, Three on the Bund, I.T Xin Tian Di, blah blah blah before you make any judgement about the shopping scene in Shanghai.

no i'm not kidding. i spent over three months there and shopping is terrible. you actually saw people buying stuff in plaza 66? i wonder how many people actually even go in there to browse- i have been there multiple times and the whole mall is dead. xin tian di? ok there's an I.T. (probably the only good store in shanghai) - but its not well stocked and the prices are marked way up - even on sale (50-70%) it's kind of a joke. is there anything else? no, not really - granted there are some new stores moving in to that complex. even the low end market is bad- there's much more available in beijing/guangzhou/shenzhen for the mainland. hong kong shopping is miles better than shanghai. sorry. shanghai shopping still sucks unless you really have copious amounts of money to spend carelessly..... but why would you do it in shanghai when you could go to tokyo or even hong kong?

 

[xcoldricex]

Overall I don't recommend people buying designers clothes in Shanghai, unless they have unlimited budgets or find something they really love and can't find back in their hometown (although that's a bit politically incorrect since I am supposed to help with the develpoment of our economy back in Shanghai ). European designers' stuff are siginifantly more expensive than Hongkong or the US (don't know about the comparison with Tokyo) because of the tariff specially imposed on imported luxury goods.

after reviewing all the high end stores, you say it yourself. why would you buy designer clothes in shanghai? even if you're just window shopping shanghai is pretty dismal.