London Review Of Books Tote Bag
An Essential Korean Fashion Accessories of 2018: The London Review Of Books Tote bag
Korea Blog Although I only have lived here for a couple of years, sometimes I feel like I’ve lost sight the cultural diversity around me. I have come to realize that the sights my friends from overseas mention are either shocking or noteworthy. Although I avoided the worst of culture shock initially by learning Korean and spending years in Los Angeles’s Koreatown before my trip to Korea, some things still stuck with me from my first visit. Trends are feared, because you see a particular clothing item on Seoul streets every single day. The West is amazed by how fast, wide-ranging, and frequent adoptions in this country. Every society has their fads. A Korean American friend asked me once, “How did they get the memo?” I think my sense of sensitivity to trends has been diminished by living in Seoul. Not just in clothing, but also in music and design. This despite considerable effort, deliberate and otherwise, to retain my outsider’s perspective by keeping a foot in current Western culture. My main means of doing so is by reading magazines. I don’t just read the ones that I wrote for, such as LARB. I also read other magazines like the New Yorker, New York Review of Books, or London Review of Books. To that last I actually only started subscribing while living in Korea. While I was expecting to get a subscription that only allowed digital access, such as the ones I purchased previously, the LRB made it clear they would not. I received print issues each fortnight from Seoul to accompany my online access.
It could have been that the LRBs arrive every two weeks, which is why I was able to see the bags in my hand. Not that I made too much, earlier this year, of the first 20-something Korean girl I spotted on a train platform with one on her shoulder. She had taken it with her on vacation to London, or perhaps as a souvenir from a London Review Cake Shop afternoon snack. The possibility that she subscribed was plausible. It’s possible, though. (I myself occasionally pick up esoteric Korean literary journals on the same principle.) Over the last few months I noticed more young women with LRB totes. They were a sight that I saw at most once a week. To satisfy my curiosity and to be considered a representative of the magazine’s readership, i thought of establishing a conversation in Korean with the next woman that I saw in public. However, Westerners have enough knowledge to get away with flouting many social taboos so I did not hesitate in asking her how she managed it. We may never know. Maybe the LRB reading had become a culturally conscious Korean trend? I kept my mind open to recent memorable articles, which might help me steer the conversation. Perhaps she might like to speak with John Lanchester about his 9,000-words on Facebook’s business models. David Bromwich’s 10.000 words about free speech Andrew O’Hagan’s 60,000 words on the Grenfell Tower fire Then I saw an article in New York (one of the few magazines named after a major Western city to which I do not yet subscribe) by Katy Schneider and Lauren Levy. The authors write, “About 1 year ago young, fashion-conscious Korean women started to visit the London Review of Books Bloomsbury bookshop. These women weren’t Jenny Diski enthusiasts, rather they were interested in the registered canvas tote bags. Then the phone calls started: people from South Korea asking to buy hundreds of the bags at once.” The store’s event coordinator looked into it and “found that the Korean tag for the bookstore on Instagram turned up pages and pages of photographs of the bag slung over chic shoulders: Evidently, the shop’s nondescript tote had become a thing.” I’ve come to understand that what becomes a thing in Korea usually does so through Instagram, the photo-oriented social-networking service popular nearly everywhere, but here especially.
I am tempted to post a #readeverywhere photo of me with one my printed issues at the DMZ using their hashtag. Or, I might if it was me. Theirs isn’t just the most popular branded bag in Korea via Instagram. It may not be the only one. Although I have seen Dean & DeLuca bags in various places, they presumably were purchased at one of Seoul’s market locations.
Peter Cat Cafe is where Haruki Murakami’s reading club meets after we finish all the novels. It is not surprising that most of the members fall within the same group as LRB Tote Instagrammers. They are females, college educated, in their 20s, with experience living and traveling abroad.
The cultural leaders of Korea are seen at many of Seoul’s new restaurants, cafes, books shops and film festivals. Most men and older people follow their lead, although they may be a little closer. LRB totes are a growing trend, with the exception of those in the simple blue-ands-beige color. But, it is inevitable that everything that gains popularity in this area will eventually die: the same holds true for unappetizing items. (I remember the white patent-leather Birkenstocks I wore on half my feet in Seoul that summer when I was first visiting. The LRB ecobag is going to be replaced by something else when the sun goes down. A second review of books is located in Korea, and could be a good fit. The trend-setters would just need to join the club. Related Korea Blog posts
Haruki Murakami is a Korean author who has more books in Korean than he ever will in English
Sinan books: The London Review Bookshops Sister Store is in Shanghai
London Review Bookshop’s green space on Sinan Books’s first floor. Shanghai was the opening of an Outpost of London Review Bookshop in April 2018.
Sinan Books is the result of years of collaboration between some Shanghai’s best book lovers. Shanghai International Literary Week is held every August. It partners with London Book Fair each year. The SILW founders thought that it would be more beneficial to hold book-related discussions throughout the year than just one week.
Sinan Reading Club started in 2014 with book signings and discussions every Saturday. Sinan Mansion served as the venue. It was formerly known Massenet Mansion. Sinan, the Mandarin pinyin for Massenet, is where the Sinan Mansion used to be. The SILW group arranged the topics and authors for the talks. Svetlana Alexievich, V.S. Naipaul, Peter Handke, Enrique Vila-Matas, Leila Slimani and many others have attended the reading club, giving talks with Chinese writers and translators. Sinan Mansion sponsored even a bimonthly literary journal in order to promote this new reading culture.
These masterminds dreamed of a downtown Shanghai bookshop. However, most good ones are found on the outskirts of the city or at a nearby university campus. The couple built a 20-square-metre, pop-up shop at Sinan Mansion. This shop opened for 60 days with 3000 books on hand. Each day, an author was assigned to the counter as a customer service assistant. It was a rehearsal for a real store, and based on its success, the Sinan Mansion management team decided, in January 2018, to give over one of their best historical buildings to the bookshop, and insisted that it must open on 23 April: World Book Day.
Due to the Chinese New Year holiday in the middle, there were only two months left for preparations when construction workers returned home for extended periods. Before the opening, the architects were working around the clock. It was more casual for the book selection group. We were both asked to help select English books for the shop by a colleague. One condition was that we not allow junk books. I was more than happy to oblige. Then we received catalogues with tens of thousands of titles, and no descriptions. While I wanted to make a selection based upon the authors’ reputation, I soon realized the number of good books written by less-familiar authors that I wasn’t aware of. My favourite bookstore was my first thought. I wondered if it would be possible to form a sisterhood with London Review Bookshop so that English titles could be imported directly from London. In February, I talked to Mary-Kay Wilmers, the editor of the London Review of Books, about the idea.
The shop received rave reviews in the media and strong sales since its opening. A maze of English books as well as stationery and gifts can be found on the 1st floor. There is a 6 to 4 ratio of Chinese books to English, so sales are almost evenly distributed. LRB bags sell extremely well, and I have already purchased more. Labor Day was a national holiday and the queues for entry were long.
The Coveted Tote Bags That Scream ‘Status’
Trophy bags. Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine In a year, dozens of young Korean ladies began to visit the Bloomsbury bookstore of The London Review of Books. These women weren’t Jenny Diski lovers, but they wanted to buy canvas bags at the register. Then the phone calls started: people from South Korea asking to buy hundreds of the bags at once. “I assume they were selling them,” says Claire Williams, event coordinator at the store. “Because we don’t have that many bags.” After further research, Claire discovered that Instagram had a Korean tag that linked to the bookstore. She found pages and pages full of images of the bag worn over chic shoulders. The shop’s undescript tote was now a thing. The originator of the bag is unknown. What do you know about these canvas bags? The graphic color blocks? Prestige tote bags seem to be on the increase. Something from WNYC announcing that you did your part to end the pledge drive is no longer enough: Totes communicate in a more nuanced language now they are the nautical flags of the F train. The Judd Foundation options are great for telling strangers that they’ve visited Marfa. However, bags from Get Go show a better understanding of the local culture. After seeing the bag on Instagram, Brian Procell, an old collector, offered $1,200 to a stranger. Procell of course declined.
.London Review Of Books Tote Bag