Mr. Bao, what I desire and what I become

With the aura of "China's most influential fashion blogger", Mr. Bao, who is already a semi-public figure, continues to enjoy the fun and challenges of work in the fashion industry.

Mr. Bao has lost weight!

This is really not the usual set of hypocritical greetings in the fashion industry, because Liang Tao (Mr. Bao’s real name) really lost a lot of weight by carefully controlling his diet.

During the early communication for this issue’s cover shoot, Liang Tao’s agent Zhou Che excitedly told me, “Dear, we have really lost weight. For this shoot, the bag can be Try more styles, there are no limits (laughing). "Liang Tao and Zhou Che's weight loss plan was carried out hand in hand with each other's supervision and encouragement. It was fun and funny. We have discussed the topic of weight loss at length in several official meetings over the past three years. Instead of using fitness to get in shape, they try to keep their mouths shut as much as possible. To be honest, the latter is more painful than the former. Fortunately, the results of their hard work were so obvious that when we met after the new look, my mouth had already opened into a huge O shape unconsciously.

Milk tea color, almond white, pistachio green

TOD'S×MR.BAGS special collaboration armpit bag

Blue double-breasted suit jacket

White shirts

Both are Tod's

It has been a year and a half since we last officially met. Even though we still meet at some fashion events, we still meet each other at some fashion events. After greetings that took less than a second, everyone dispersed. Opportunities for serious chatting are almost always of a semi-work nature. In the past year, Liang Tao's company moved from a private office building to a more formal office building, and the team size has also gradually expanded. This young boss, born in 1992, leads a team with a similar average age to work diligently and is further raising the ceiling of the career of Chinese fashion bloggers. The team of 20 people is busy with the content production and daily operations of Weibo, WeChat and Xiaohongshu every day. It is no different from other Internet-based media companies, lively and serious.

Even though he is only 28 years old, Liang Tao still reveals his envy for the post-95 generation in his words. Young people's concerns and anxieties about age are becoming more and more prominent in this extremely fast-paced era. Especially when the relationship between age and talent is no longer presented in the old-school way of seniority, the topic of health care is no longer the same. Unexpectedly, it once again became a "common chatter" in the dressing room. As soon as he sat down, Liang Tao started talking about the troubles of staying up late. Before putting on makeup, you can indeed guess from his complexion that he must not have slept well last night, and the dark circles under his eyes are obvious. But today's young people regard staying up late as another daily routine. It’s not that I’m really busy working overtime, it’s just because there are too many external interferences, such as endless Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Moments, all of which make the biological clock tell myself, “Hey, 2:00AM Is New 10: 00PM. ”

The contradictions in young people are all the same, regardless of you and me.

Pistachio green

TOD'S×MR.BAGS special collaboration underarm bag

Blue double-breasted suit jacket

White Shirts

All are Tod's

This shooting is about his re-joint brand with Italian luxury brand Tod's - Mr. Bao x Tod's 2020 special cooperation series, one of the most popular armpits nowadays. The lower bag has enough capacity, is simple and lightweight, and of course comes with Tod's highest quality leather. The three colors include the classic and versatile milk tea color, the summery pistachio green, and the cold almond white.

The cooperation between Liang Tao and Tod's has entered its fourth year. In the past, this joint limited series would be released on Liang Tao's birthday. The first 200 limited-edition bags launched in collaboration, including the Wave Big Mouth Backpack, were sold out within five minutes. In the case of cooperation between Chinese fashion bloggers and luxury brands, Liang Tao is not only the record holder, but also the pioneer.

However, the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic has unexpectedly broken this routine. The shutdown of the Italian factory has caused the cooperation bag to be unable to be completed as scheduled, and the release date had to be postponed from June to September, which happened to be just in time. This year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day.

Liang Tao is actually the first Chinese fashion blogger to recommend bags to his fans on social media with the theme of "Chinese Valentine's Day". After this, luxury brands have realized that compared to the Western Valentine's Day period of "214", the traditional Chinese Valentine's Day period of "Qixi Festival" is more capable of touching the hearts of Chinese consumers. Whether it is Dior, Gucci, Givenchy or Tod's, luxury brands of different sizes have formulated special plans for the Chinese Valentine's Day in their annual plans, or have their headquarters create a batch of truly limited edition products for Chinese consumers. Either they create a small capsule series from regular commercial goods as "Qixi Festival Limited Edition". Regardless of their sincerity, brands have seen a significant increase in sales performance in the short term through the extremely powerful WeChat mini program. This special day, which is not part of a traditional Chinese holiday, has unexpectedly become a sales spree for luxury brands following the "Double 11".

Although the new season's men's and women's fashion weeks have moved online or announced their suspension, these travels that originally occupied a lot of energy have not slowed down the work rhythm of Liang Tao's team. Content related to "Chinese Valentine's Day" has become the most important work at this stage, and he also has more time to record Vlog and video programs. The global and erratic COVID-19 epidemic once disrupted the rhythm of the fashion industry, which needs to be strictly based on time. Domestic and foreign business trips were forced to be stranded in the short term. However, these unexpectedly allowed Liang Tao to find a long-lost "normal life" . "Not having frequent international business trips means you don't have to fight against jet lag. I haven't experienced what it feels like to stay in the same city for a long time, and later I realized that this is the norm for ordinary people." Indeed. , the life of fashion bloggers is a kind of "look up to and admire" in the eyes of the public.

During this period, he also put into practice another interest that he had longed for - learning Italian. Two classes a week, one-on-one. After ten lessons, he has mastered some daily expressions. Learning a new language and getting to know the country and its people is a new experience, even though he travels to Italy several times a year for business.

A week later, our interview moved from the studio dressing room to the Chinese restaurant of the Rosewood Hotel. Chatting while eating is like a glass of ice-cold barley water on a hot summer day, which can appropriately make the interviewee sitting across from you feel more relaxed. Liang Tao dressed up specially. In the afternoon, he had to interview new employees and brands were coming to visit the company. Dior's bucket hat, Prada's comic-print short jacket, fashionable wide-leg trousers, Tod's new leather shoes, and Dior Tote bag. His bag was full, including his Italian textbooks, and he would have a new class in the evening. "This bag is really easy to use. I can list 15 advantages in one breath, and one of them will hit your heart." Before even using his chopsticks, he showed his "occupational disease."

Milk brown TOD'S×MR.BAGS special collaboration underarm bag

Linen shirt

White casual trousers

Doudou Loaf leather shoes

Both are Tod's

After having a full meal and tea, Liang Tao said that this meal was a bit "overeating", but fortunately he has developed a habit of It’s a good habit to have dinner done before six o’clock. Naturally, our topic returns to the topic of weight loss. He talked about his psychological comparison before and after losing weight, "In fact, people are always self-deceptive in judging whether they are fat or thin. When you really realize that you are fat, it means that you are really fat. The most painful part of dieting is persisting, especially when you insist on it for two weeks and you are so hungry that you are blind at night, but a bowl of late-night snacks can really break your psychological defenses and make you want to give up. When I lost weight, it was actually when I was recording Vlogs.” When the fashion media also began to emphasize diversified aesthetics, when we praised “your own body,” or claimed something like “Fat people can also be beautiful.” "When we hold this view, we always ignore that "obesity is one of the original sins that endangers our health."

Everyone has their own choice. During the chat, you can feel Liang Tao's comfort and confidence after his body became lighter.

This boy who doesn’t drink coffee and prefers sweets still acts like a child when talking. This time last year, “what he desired” had become “what he became” now. The pain of growing up does not seem to have left too many traces on him, and he is optimistic and positive.

It’s great to still be a young man!

Photography: Liu Xiaoming

Image: Wen Yuhan

Makeup and hair style: Haochao

Interview, text: Shenqi

Costume Assistant: Dou Yiwei

Venue: News Studio