Shanghai Fashion

What a fun day we had today! A day full of fashion.

Elle and I started off by heading to the one and only store of it's kind in the world, the Barbie Store. A mega store, 6 floors high, loaded with Barbie's and Barbie themed entertainment. We left the boys at home and went off to have some girly girl time. The boys were going to meet us later for lunch in the American styled Barbie Cafe. First stop was the design center. Elle sat down at a computer and whipped up her own specially designed Barbie Doll. She picked out the skin, eye and hair color and then got to pick and choose the outfits and accessories. She clicked "send" and within a few minutes she was holding her very own Barbie doll-- appropriately, she named her "Sparkles Diamond Rose Sanger." We then wandered the store just oggling the oodles and oodles of amazing Barbie dolls, many of them were gorgeous $200 designer Barbies, and then there were the country themed Barbie's and the yearly Barbie's, going all the way back to 1952. There was a Barbie spa, where one could get a manicure/pedicure, a facial, or make-up application-- we skipped this.

Then, we stumbled across the Runway Cafe. Before I knew it, 3 Shanghai-ese women had whisked Elle behind closed curtains to prepare her for her very first runway show. I was sat down in the cafe to wait. I had no idea what was going on, and I wasn't allowed to peek. Suddenly, I saw Justin and Liam approaching, they had made it just in time for the big show. The lights flashed and an announcement was piped through the store in English and Mandarin, which was basically, "Come one, come all to the cafe to see the big runway show!" The music was turned up and lights flooded the stage, and I kid you not, a professional photographer came out and stood at the end of the runway, paparazzi style. The cafe got more crowded, and I began to feel a little nervous for Elle. She surely had no idea what she was in for, I certainly hadn't. This was over the top. I really expected her to freeze when she appeared. The MC said something and Elle was nudged out onto stage and after a brief hesitation she sauntered down the runway like a true professional. She was totally adorable and looked pretty much like a Barbie. She made a couple runs down the runway with different accessories and then the show was over. It was ridiculous and totally adorable at the same time. She was over-joyed and all the little Asian girls thought she was great! It was really sweet.

Then we headed up to the Barbie Restaurant, beautifully designed and serving pretty good food actually. Justin had the "Ken Burger". Soon it was time for us to leave Barbie behind and we headed to the Fabric Market. At the Shanghai fabric market the main event is getting clothes tailor made for you and picking the fabrics and the styles and the tailor yourself. It's all very overwhelming and really personalized and extremely inexpensive. Justin is having 5 pants, 8 shirts, 2 jackets, and a cashmere coat tailor made for him-- all for less than $500US. I found a leather jacket that I decided I had to have. By Saturday, it will all be ready. Absolutely incredible. I could've spent many more hours there, but we'd all had it and needed to head home.

After surviving another truly harrowing Shanghai cab ride, we are home to rest and order up some Sherpa's. What a crazy, fantastic city this is.