Crystal House

Just a few doors down on the same side of the street as Ryowa, Pho To Chau, and Totorro Korean, and arguably the space adjacent to what used to be Hong Kong Bakery's flour milling and baking operation and junk storage, is a small shop selling various, shall we say, made in China kind of imports of mostly clothes and other trinkets. It's one of those shops you probably wouldn't even give it a passing thought, nor would pay any attention to the name of the shop. The signage is not very obvious in the evenings.

How can I put this gently....the clothes/jackets and some of their designs are perhaps a bit too on the Chinese-y side (ie old school mainland China) and our hip to the hop female equivalents in Beijing or Shanghai would not be caught dead wearing such things (some looked decent but some other items looked like the tourist clothing shops in SF Chinatown). Not to say they are fugly or shideous, but it's like old and new fashion fusionized with traditional Chinese wear, like those "meen laps" (imagine those uber old school thick vests and kung fu hustler types) with some pseudo cheong sam dress designs that Miu Miu or some frou frou Chinese female fashion designer would not want to be caught dead in.

I'm sure there is a target market for this store's offerings, but I have yet to see someone walk in here and come out with a handful of stuffed to the gills shopping bags.

I was drawn by the 50% off Lunar New Year sale. But when I entered I learned that only certain items were 50% off and most things were not priced. I just hate when they change the rules or do not post accurate information. The sign should have said 20-50% off or up to 50% off. I also feel like perhaps she changed the sale on me because I looked like I could be had. Just left me with a bad feeling.