This month, China’s cybercitizens hailed an anonymous beggar from Ningbo as China’s most handsome and fashionable man – all based on one photo taken by an amateur photographer testing his camera. When posted online, the picture of Cheng Guorong attracted a cult following all admiring his ‘good looks’ and ‘bohemian style’. There was also an offline search to discover his exact whereabouts and bestow upon him a dubious celebrity status, as envisaged in various photoshop creations. He has been dubbed the The Handsome Vagabond, or more commonly, Brother Sharp. One superfan is even trying to trademark ‘his look’ on his behalf. His appeal has been summed up nicely by one commentator: ‘Look at him wrinkle his brow … nothing needs to be said … sexy …’ We think Brother Sharp is an amusing parable of our times – high fashion being indistinguishable from the results of 6 months of sleeping rough.


Homelessness in the fashion world seems to be having a zeitgeist moment. Vivienne Westwood latest men’s collection for A/W 2010 was inspired by vagrants. Last September saw a homeless-chic cover on Italian Vogue. Elle awarded an internship to a homeless girl. Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist has been snapping the homeless. There is even a website dedicated to snapping the trend-setting homeless. The famed Olsen twins have been dressing like elegantly homeless hoboes for years. This may well be a statement to keep their distance from the celeb world. Maybe there is a parallel between the conscious shabbiness of the Olsen’s and the dressing down that has always been a way for the upper class to signal their distance to the nouveau riche? We love this quote from model Erin Wasson, which perfectly sums up fashions removal from reality on the subject of ‘homeless chic’:
‘The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest. Like, when I go down to Venice beach and I see the homeless, like, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pulled shit out of like garbage cans.’


Thanks to Jacob Wright, Paula Bjork and Gavin Cumine for this story. This article was a two thirds Scottish and one third Swedish creation. With a dash of sarah rabia editrix multiculturalism!


Reference
Chinasmack.com

Image Credit
Funkydowntown.com

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