Double happiness is a necklace: Shanghai vintage reborn at Bai Sher
“Bai Sher is meant to be a platform for people with similar minds to share their passions and ideas," says Xiao Xiao. "It's a creative space and I hope it can inspire young people to be more imaginative, and reuse the old to make new.”Xiao Fan, wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, loose Japanese-style cardigan, dark wool coat and carrying his laptop in a 1930s vintage leather briefcase, is slightly odd at first sight to say the least. His eccentric dress code however betrays his passion -- Shanghai vintage.
I want these new things from the old to be appreciated by young people, so they are very affordable.— Xiao Xiao, Bei She ownerr
A Shanghai native, Xiao Xiao, as he prefers to be called, runs a store called Bai She (摆设) dedicated to bringing new life to his Shanghai vintage finds.
Stepping into Xiao Xiao's store on the border of Shanghai’s French Concession and Jing’an District, is like stepping back into old Shanghai, or at least bits and pieces of it. Looking around you see oak cabinets from the 1930s and wooden doors with stained glass windows hunkering alongside bronze ornaments, an assortment of lamps and glassware and Seagull radios from the 1950s. The vintage clutter goes on and on. In the room with dim orange light and the damp smell of old Shanghai, Billie Holiday plays in the background.
Shanghai vintage everywhere
Xiao Xiao’s fascination with objects of Shanghai’s past started young, “I grew up in a house cluttered with old things,” explains Xiao Xiao. “So to me, my love for old Shanghai is easy to understand.”
“I started to collect my own old furniture and antique things from Shanghainese people's homes,” continues Xiao Xiao. But his collection soon out grew his apartment, it was then that Xiao Xiao decided to open a store for his finds.
“I've always been a little obsessed with the Chinese character of 'double happiness', which are everywhere in old Shanghainese furniture: hot water bottles, the handles of dresser drawers,and curtain hooks.” Xiao shows us a necklace made of a small bronze 'double happiness' symbol. “I used old [double happiness symbols] that I found to make this.”
Vintage fashionista
“I love fashion,” says Xiao Xiao sitting in a chair with a couple of qipaos hanging next to him. “The next thing I'd like to do is to make fashion. I'm thinking about using vintage leather to make bags and gloves.” As a reader of High Fashion magazine, Xiao says one of his biggest dreams is to have his own designer clothing shop.
A means to inspire
In a room where everything is a piece of art, it's hard not to feel a bit moved -- or at least feel compelled to find and revive some of your own Shanghai vintage pieces.
“I definitively hope what I do will inspire people,” says Xiao Xiao standing in front of a Russian bicycle from WWI. “Bai Sher is meant to be a platform for people with similar minds to share their passions and ideas. It's a creative space and I hope it can inspire young people to be more imaginative, and reuse the old to make new.”
