Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT 

As a fashion lover from England, living in Beijing has led me to undergo a subconscious fashion transformation, making "foreigner in China" the next stage of my fashion journey. Upon moving to China, I was convinced I would need to bring all the essentials with me, so my suitcase was stuffed with pillows, blankets and towels, leaving very little room for clothes.
To a naïve foreigner, the thought of having to trawl Beijing for bed sheets upon my arrival was more off-putting than having to buy a whole new wardrobe. I was wrong. It turned out I would have to scour half of Beijing for a pair of shoes of my size. My insecurities were also blown out of the water after I once asked where the changing room was to try on a medium-sized dress, only to receive a confused glance from the shop assistant who handed me an XL "just in case" the medium didn't fit. Embarrassed to admit to myself or the assistant that even the XL was too small, I bought the dress, which now hangs in my wardrobe as a goal for the diet I have since started. This would have been acceptable if the dress had been a bargain but, once more dispelling my preconceptions, buying clothes in most shops in China is not cheaper than in the UK. 
I discovered that the best place for me to cheaply stock up on clothes is at a market. If you are willing to haggle in a fiercely un-English manner and sift through floor after floor of bargain goods, you can leave with not only the cheap items you need, but also the items you don't. Most of the clothes markets I have visited in the past involve paying an entry fee, and then being persuaded to buy items at high prices that you are too scared to question as the label has been removed and the item is quoted as being "vintage." Rather than leaving the Chinese market with a lurid fur coat, I left with a new clubbing outfit, which cost the same as a pair of socks at a vintage market.
Even when I try to embrace Chinese fashion, my English approach still gets mocked. Being from the cold, wet north of England, the progression from August to late September in Beijing was hardly noticeable to me. However, leaving my apartment in September in a t-shirt, trousers and flip-flops, all purchased from the Chinese market, led to me getting several stares and the odd snigger. However, fashions which would seem bizarre in the UK are commonplace in China. When I went to my first club in Beijing, I found that rather than young people avoiding wearing face masks in case it ruined their aesthetic, they were dancing on platforms and using masks to create a mysterious aura for themselves. Using their raised position on the platform to model their latest looks, a simple black mask seems to be replacing the little black dress as a wardrobe staple. 
My favorite Chinese trend is undeniably the puffer jacket. With the onset of Beijing's winter, not only is it functional, but it is the only item of clothing where I experience the direct advantage of the extra padding of an XL.