Industrial: Where Gearheads and Heritage Fashions Meet
Up until recently we had no idea just how popular the whole motorcycle club thing was here in Beijing, and were suprised to discover that it doesn’t just exist among a small group of slick foreigners known for living out their outlaw fantasies on weekend trips barreling through the mountains beyond the city. It’s also a burgeoning local counterculture movement, restoring antique Hogs to rumble through the old streets of the capital. Enter Industrial, the new clothier providing heritage threads and handcrafted accessories for these heaven’s devils.
Attractive items on display include refurbished Zippo lighters customized by silversmiths in Japan. These will set you back a large percentage of your monthly salary (RMB 2,000-5,000). You would have to be seriously trying to impress someone to spend this kind of cash on a cigarette lighter. They also have very cool handcrafted necklaces and pendants of horror icons like Frankenstein and the Planters Peanuts mascot (RMB 2,500). There’s not much in this world scarier than a monocle-wearing peanut, dancing menacingly with a cane, especially if you are fatally allergic to this tasty legume. A motorcycle clothier wouldn’t be complete without some beautiful leather jackets, of which they have many, imported from UK-based brand Lewis Leathers (RMB 9,800).
Industrial is a beautiful store, with lots of eye candy and an exceptionally rare selection of goods that we can only hope to one day have the means to deck ourselves out in. The real question is: would a real rabble rouser drop the dough on these clothes? That remains to be seen, but if you buy over RMB 10,000 worth of stuff you will instantly become a VIP customer and receive discounts on a variety of merchandise. Granted, Sonny Barger probably wouldn’t look in the general direction of this posh gear, but these are still handsome examples of classic motorcycle apparel.
Industrial
Daily 1.30-9.30pm. 25 Sanlitun Beilu, Chaoyang District (6417 9661)
朝阳区三里屯北区25号
500m northwest of Tuanjiehu (Line 10)
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Email: danielkippwhittaker@thebeijinger.com
Photos: Kipp Whittaker