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FEBRUARY 2012
Strength of Characters
FASHION DESIGNERS SHOWTHEIR HEROIC SIDE
On a recentMonday night atManhattan’sAceHotel, emcee Jason
Jones—best known as a “Daily Show” correspondent—is standing
next to amannequin in a hooded sweatshirt with floppy pink ears.
It’s the costume for a supervillain named “Black Sheep,” Jones tells
the crowd, as the silent auction quietly rages. In the end, the piece,
created bymenswear designerMatt Singer, goes for $200. Jones
describes the future owner as “a baah, baahman,” eliciting groans
from the audience. “I didn’t write these jokes,” he says.
“Black Sheep” is just one of the many costumes created
for superheroes and archenemies by some of today’s hippest
fashion designers to benefit 826NYC, the writing and tutoring
center founded by literary juggernaut Dave Eggers. There’s “Semi-
precious,” a gold sequined bodysuit andmatchingmask by Renata
Morales; ComplexGeometries’ “KryptonianCasual,” a silver crepe
dress with a billowing cape; and “Lovelorn,” which appears to be a
cross between a suit and a kimono, by Opening Ceremony.
Christiane Hultquist of Christian Joy shows off “Magnitita,” a
sparkly red leotard combined with a leopard cape and magnetic
claws, while her husband, a member of the band Bubbles, per-
forms onstage. Hultquist, for her part, says she’d like to have the
powers of Aquaman, though she isn’t sure what she would do
with them. “I don’t know how it would help anybody,” she muses.
Jack Spade’s “Anonymous, the Blog Goon,” meanwhile, is not
designed for a do-gooder. The antihero getup includes a bathrobe,
a trucker-hat wig and a “Your Blog Stinks” T-shirt. Though Jones
seems underwhelmed (“So it’s just a shirt, a robe andawig?”), New
York University student Amy Griffis isn’t. Her $200 bid wins the
ensemble, which comes with a duffel bag of Spam. “Breakfast for
amonth!” exclaims her date. The day is saved.
—MICHELLE BANGERT
BEIJING
BREWED AWAKENING
Cra beer gets a Chinese twist
It’s close tomidnight, and Beijing is
shrouded in its usual soupy haze. The low
buzz of conversation beckons night owls
down Doujiao Hutong, a crooked alley
lined with traditional Chinese homes, to
the outdoor courtyard of Great Leap Brew-
ing. Diana Bates, an American local news
editor eavesdropping over her pint glass,
offers her assessment of the crowd. “Heavy
on the mountain biking, ta oos and trips
to Bali,” she says, noting the preponder-
ance of fellow expats.
But if the brewery’s Cleveland-born
founder, Carl Setzer, has his way, that won’t
be the case for long. Launched about a
year ago, Great Leap Brewing is positioned
to take advantage of two seemingly con-
tradictory trends: rising Chinese demand
for foreign lifestyle goods and renewed
pride in Chinese products. Featuring
ingredients like Sichuan peppercorn and
oolong tea, GLB’s offerings stand in stark
contrast to those of other recently opened
Chinese microbreweries, which emphasize
their connections to Germany or the U.S.
Of course, China is no stranger to beer.
It consumed 44 billion liters in 2010 alone
—the most in the world—but its new rich
have thus far preferred to bid up vintage
bo les of Château Lafite to staggering
prices. Setzer is be ing that high-quality
beer will emerge as a less pretentious alter-
native for discerning urbanites. “I think
that’s what beer is in the States, and I think
that’s what beer will be here,” he says.
Setzer knows it may take some time for
the premium stuff to catch on. “We get a
lot of people who initially think that it’s
some sort of fermented wheat wine,” he
says. Once they develop the taste, however,
“they can’t really drink the big industrial
lagers.” China, meet your newest import:
the beer snob.
—SHEPHERD LAUGHLIN
NEW YORK CITY
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