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GQ China August 2020

The Edge of Youth

Photographer: Lingjie Tang
Stylist: Zhuoxin Wu
Grooming: Wei Cao
Cast: Ziyi Ao






GQ China Digital Edition
 
GQ China August 2020

Life in a Pouch

Photographer & Stylist: De Ziming
Makeup: Maomao Huang
Hair: Junzhe Wang
Cast: Xinyu Feng






GQ China Digital Edition
 
GQ China August 2020

Li Meng

Photographer: Nam Jiang
Stylist: Ting Yang
Hair: Sensen
Makeup: Peter Qian
Cast: Meng Li







GQ China Digital Edition
 
GQ China August 2020

Tye-Dye Cool

Photographer: Jinlong Yang
Stylist: Lillie Zhou
Grooming: Maomao
Cast: Kevin





GQ China Digital Edition
 
Confused by GQ Germany. I’m assuming they’re trying to confront racism or speak to social issues, but why focus on America? As if Germany doesn’t have plenty of issues of their own that could be addressed? Maybe I’m being defensive, but it seems like a cheap shot for a German magazine to direct critical focus on America instead of looking inward.
 
GivenchyAddict said:
So sad what is happening with GQ China. The content is very Nylon...
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's partly down to the pandemic - they're obviously not able to book any Western talent right now.
I'm torn. On the one hand, I think it's tremendous in a way because it will mean local photographers, hair stylists, makeup artists and models get to shine, and on the other, I think the quality could be better overall.

Regardless, the Chinese luxury market is like a bull that cannot be stopped. 214 Pages for an August issue, with ads from the likes of Giorgio Armani Beauty and Lancome, both featuring female models. That's when you know the brand is so strong and desirable that women's brands are seeking it out to feed into the Chinese man's fascination with makeup, and of course court that 5% females who read men's magazines. I've also read an article two weeks ago that they've pulled record-breaking numbers as the only media partner for Louis Vuitton Men's show in Shanghai. Apparently they got a bunch of really popular celebrities to shoot teaser clips leading up to the show which really helped hype it up. All wearing Vuitton of course, complete with 'buy now' links.

Thanks for taking the time to translate the credits, MDNA! :heart:


GQ China August 2020

Geometric Variation

Photographer: Nick Yang
Stylist: Steven Sun
Hair: Jiasu Li
Makeup: Dongyang Xu
Cast: Shixin Huang



GQ China Digital Edition
 
The thing with Chinese talent is that they are generally followers and not leaders— much like the general luxury consumer in China. So whatever is trending currently— and unfortunately this abysmally faux-amateur aesthetic in photography with the flat-lighting is polluting the industry without any signs of a quick death, and that’s what Chinese photographers/CD, AD/stylists will be emulating. Their local casting is at least good in that these guys look like models with strong bone structures (unlike the majority of Western men’s rags’ castings that mostly resemble the types that want to be models in HS but wanting and actually possessing the god-given physical attributes are two totally different things… But I get it: “diversity and inclusivity”!). It’s just the annoying juvenile styling that has these guys looking like pubescent twinks.

(And this is why I’ll gladly take Pietro anytime, anywhere, any day…)
 
To answer both of you, my issue is much more the styling. I am happy that they support local talents but GQ is supposed to be the best in terms of visual content (compared to all the men's magazines in China). Rocco Liu is a great EIC, he managed to keep GQ sales high despites everything happening but the fashion team is a big no.

You can be fresh, modern, young and yet be far from Nylon aesthetic. Anson Chen did a nice job. Still looking forward to see his touch at WSJ China.
 
The situation at GQ china was messy: sexual harassment, tax fraud, etc I do remember. But honestly Condé nast China was messy overall. Huasheng media is less problematic and elitist with T, Wallpaper, WSJ and Kinfolk China, so I understand his choice.
 
GivenchyAddict said:
You can be fresh, modern, young and yet be far from Nylon aesthetic. Anson Chen did a nice job. Still looking forward to see his touch at WSJ China.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. The options and opportunities are definitely there since China is one of the leading consumers of high fashion/luxury. Unfortunately, the motivation for an individual and fresh identity is not there, frankly. (And that has a lot to do with the mindset and nature of a culture that is still very conservative and not willing to take creative risks.) The industry as a whole— from the retail to the publication spectrum, has become so homogenized/synthesized/globalized in that everybody subscribes to the same template that other than the predominately Chinese casting, there’s nothing here that is identifiably Chinese. That wasn’t the case a decade ago with GQ China (and Vogue China). Then again, why look to GQ China for freshness when the same neutralized fate has taken over the once impossibly individualized Vogue Italia and L’Uomo???

This pandemic would have been an opportunity for all the editors/CDs to make the effort to spark ingenuity and improvise a new creative identity— even vision. And it’s absolutely possible to create wonders with a very limited budget and a limited team. Instead, everyone became even lazier and facetime imagery now makes it on the cover of a high profile publication LOL
 
Nylon influenced or not, that GQ China cover is better than anything GQ US has produced in the past ten years.
I like seeing Chinese talent more than Western talent any day of the week.
This issue seems more willing to take some artistic chances compared to the bore-fest US magazines.
At least visually this is much more interesting.
I wonder if the styling is deliberate to appeal to the super rich kids of the super rich Chinese?
 
GQ China usually are solid with their covers. Their recent July one comes to mind: Strong composition and color-palette that still feels casual and in the mood of the times:

1353757-800w.jpg

Models.com

American GQ has ceased to remotely resemble creative high fashion imagery for well over 2 decades now. It’s nothing more than a glorified mid-range department-store weekly flyer— just with celebrities wearing expensive labels. It’s beyond a lost cause.

(I still have my older sister’s GQs from the 80s. Those were the days of solid photography and worldbuilding edits, where a holiday story of men’s swim trunks would be shot on location in Belize, with a cast that would include the likes of Veronica Webb and Tatjana Patitz…)
 
dfl-001 said:
Nylon influenced or not, that GQ China cover is better than anything GQ US has produced in the past ten years.
I like seeing Chinese talent more than Western talent any day of the week.
This issue seems more willing to take some artistic chances compared to the bore-fest US magazines.
At least visually this is much more interesting.
I wonder if the styling is deliberate to appeal to the super rich kids of the super rich Chinese?
Click to expand...
Agree... Like GQ Korea they Always produced more than 5 editorial every issue...
 
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