The facekini is a Chinese fashion phenomenon.
You might find people wearing these on beaches
to avoid the sun.
And it was invented by this woman in 2004
in the seaside city of Qingdao,
and it’s her take on the balaclava
like the one in this video.
Let's go.
Here’s how she came up with it.
Eventually, the scuba diving hood evolved into this.
In 2012, the facekini became known worldwide
when Western media began covering it.
In this 2017 piece,
Vogue called it “a way of life for many.”
But Zhang admits that some of her designs are a bit,
well,
unsettling.
These facekinis can cost as low as $2 and up to $10 each.
So we hit up a beach in Qingdao to look for the infamous facekini.
We were convinced they’d be everywhere.
But it turned out they were not.
When I was talking to Zhang,
she said that it was true that they only sold the facekini online
and that she has trademarks on all of her designs.
But when I asked her why we didn’t see any
facekinis on the beach,
she basically told me that we were there at the wrong time.
We couldn’t verify that claim,
and though we didn't see any facekinis on the beach,
we did see a lot of people covered up.
Pale skin is the beauty standard in China
and a lucrative one at that.
However, Tai says that there are some people
who are starting to value tan skin,
and that’s in part inspired by the hip-hop culture.
However, most Chinese women
still seem to see pale skin as the ideal,
which is why the facekini is still such a viable product
in the Chinese market.
And as far as fads go,
it seems like the facekini is either a fast-fading trend
or maybe just a little too weird for the mainstream.