A sense of freedom and exploration: Taipei Fashion Week continues to define its presence

Taiwan has long been known as an important foundation of the global textile industry. Yet, when it comes to placing its own designers on an international pedestal, a saturated playing field of more established fashion week markets has presented challenges in the pursuit of bolstering local designer reach. With Taipei Fashion Week (TPEFW), however, the country hopes to turn this around.

Now in its sixth year, the event is still somewhat in its infancy that is continuing to define its place as a fashion week contender. In April 2024, a transition phase was underway to achieve such a mission, with the newly appointed deputy minister of culture, Sue Wang, taking it upon herself to analyse the needs of the market and follow suit. For this latest edition, held from 16 to 22 October, evidence of Wang’s efforts were already apparent in the form of a more abundant schedule – a possible reflection of heightened interest in participating from designers.

A number of the more storied brands, such as Liyu Tsai and Gioia Pan, sat alongside newer designers like Hansen Atelier and Baron Lee’s Dleet. Many notable names also returned to the schedule after spending season(s) overseas at other international fashion weeks. On the heels of opening a Japanese headquarters and showing at Tokyo Fashion Week, Tzu Chin Shen’s Seivson, for example, was back in Taiwan, hosting a pop-up store alongside a show, where she told FashionUnited she felt it was important to “not be absent from the growth of TPEFW because this is [her] country”. It was a sentiment that could be felt throughout the week when speaking to many of the young designers on whom TPEFW relies.

In the way of audience attendance, there did still appear to be challenges. While overlapping with the Taipei Innovative Textile Application show, the timing meant buyers and other industry professionals were left choosing between the simultaneous fashion weeks of Taipei, Riyadh and Shanghai, the latter having secured slots for Vivienne Westwood and Moncler, thus drawing much of the online attention over the week. A similar method of turning to international names was seemingly part of Taipei’s strategy this season, however, as French-Italian label Pierre Cardin made a stopover in the city to exhibit its SS25 line. Despite this, organisers reaffirmed that Taipei was largely looking to uphold more local success stories, while seeking out an identity that hopes to encapsulate the region’s open-minded and inclusive approach to fashion.

While turning to international names, Taipei reaffirms local tendencies

When talking about Taiwan's values, Wang told FashionUnited: “Taiwan is an immigrant society, it’s a mixed culture and is very inclusive. When we think about the type of Taiwan we should portray, we need to go back to our history and learn about it. Although we still can’t define what the fashion identity of Taiwan is, we can at least hope to convey a few concepts. First, Taiwan is free, so we have the right to have our own fashion. Secondly, we respect diversity. We emphasise the diversity of gender, for example, so freedom of diversity is something we aim to convey in fashion.”

This intention was already evident in the first show of the week by Storywear, a “zero-waste” label founded six years ago by designer Chen Guan-Bai. The brand itself has become indicative of the fashion week as a representation of what Taipei’s industry stands for; sustainable production, young brands and a culturally open mind. Featuring notable celebrities, the inclusion of behind-the-scene workers and a number of drag queen performances, almost every facet was put on display in a spectacle show at the rooftop bar of W Hotel, where a spread of denim-centric designs were spotlighted, many incorporating a variety of technical details, from the use of Taiwanese indigo dye to screen printing to yarn weaving.

The label also took part in TPEFW’s Opening Ceremony, ‘Taiwan Type Illustrated Fashion Book’, being one of the six designers selected for the show. The idea behind the concept was to pair some of the most notable of Taiwanese emerging names with graphic design artists, leaning in on the increased popularity and fast growth of the graphic IP market in Taiwan. The concept mirrored a prior mission of Wang’s discussed with FashionUnited last season: to incorporate more local IP into the fashion week and encourage designers to work with Taiwan's wider cultural industries. The result was a curated selection of collaborative designs that ultimately formed one of the strongest shows of the week, as collections depicted definitive brand identities while showcasing the strength of the homegrown graphic IP talent.

Charles Tang, of Tangtsungchien, was also among those presenting in the opening show. The young designer, who has previously interned in the knitwear department of Loewe and now has his own studio in Taichung, was paired with Xia Xian, a graphic designer focused on translating the “everyday” Taiwanese lifestyle into colourful prints. “It was her universe,” Tang said of the graphic art Xian provided. “It was a fantasy, but inspired by a normal day. The little stuff on the street that nobody notices and the surroundings of the city. So the collection was all about that, and also respecting the artist’s work by zooming into all the elements.”

Following the show, pieces from the runway were immediately displayed next door in an exhibition space, ‘Taiwan Type Super Swag’, where models posed in front of guests, allowing a closer look at the garments. The success of such a setup, which ran throughout the entirety of the fashion week, was immediately evident, as attendees streamed out of the opening show space and straight into the exhibition, which quickly filled up with enthusiastic visitors. Here, it was also possible to purchase certain items from the collaborations, like bags, T-shirts and magnets, showing the intention to support the creatives through financial means and introduce their products directly to a paying audience.

Fashion takes over shopping district to get closer to the public

The opening ceremony show wasn’t the only production of a larger scale. For one evening, the fashion week took over a busy shopping district, Xinyi, for Vogue Fashion’s Night Out “cross-border” show, where six more of Taiwan’s big name designers presented looks as part of a vastly attended performance. Important political figures were in attendance to show their support alongside local celebrities, who were both in the audience and performing on the runway, while the collections from the six selected designers traversed the stage. The idea of the event was to bring the world of fashion closer to the public, while simultaneously refreshing perspectives of what this realm actually involves.

Among the designers presenting at the show were London Fashion Week regular Claudia Wang and Justin Chou of Just In XX, a New York Fashion Week alumni and designer of Chinese Taipei’s Olympic 2024 uniforms. During the show, Chou presented his sustainable experimental line, Luxxury Godbage, which uses recycled and vintage clothing and accessories for pieces inspired by the 16 personality types associated with the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Each of the personalities were analysed through AI-generated data that then informed the final designs.

For Chou, the opportunity to show at the event, this edition marking the brand’s fourth time presenting, was much more than about exhibiting his own brand. “For us, this event is not just a fashion party but a platform to showcase the rich cultural diversity and creative possibilities of Taipei,” Chou told FashionUnited. “Each time, we strive to break the conventional image of the fashion industry, never limiting ourselves to traditional frameworks. Instead, we draw inspiration from current societal issues or phenomena outside the typical fashion realm.”

Societal issues indeed played a large part in many shows, seeping into exhibitions that aimed to touch, sometimes subtly, on the unavoidable topic of political tensions that potentially threaten Taiwan’s sense of freedom. At Chow des Homme, designer Billy Chow, offered his own commentary on the matter, with a show that introduced the theme of “Invisible Victims” to explore those who lose themselves in the pursuit of superficial appearances, represented in a chilling finale in which models came out donning mouth tape.

Ray Chu, meanwhile, despite showing many times at LFW, still has strong ties to his Taiwanese home, ties that he regularly incorporates into his collections, including in his collaboration with graphic artist Michun for the opening show. For SS25, Chu made references to the Illyri flower seen across Southeast Asia that he said showed a sense of resilience akin to that of the people of Taiwan. He told FashionUnited: “If we want to stand out among all these fashion weeks, I think people in Taiwan or the government should take a different approach. The cultural part is something unique, so it can stand out. What we create is already Taiwan itself, born from the passion of the Taiwanese people.”

Efforts to bolster the international presence of domestic brands to come to fruition

It thus must be reemphasised, as already noted in Wang’s previous quote, that Taiwan’s fashion identity does seem to lie in the freedom these independent designers hold in the expression of their own image. Could it be then that in place of searching to define this fashion identity, the fashion week should instead seek out ways to help uplift the already distinct image many of these designers have been able to capture for their brands?

Many TPEFW designers currently do not have a solid base through which to sell their products within the local market, and a consistent means of support for this factor has not yet come to fruition. Those that have extended their reach to audiences beyond Taiwan, such as INF and Seivson, have typically been more successful at securing retail partners in global regions. In a bid to bring about change in this area, the fashion week hosted an extended iteration of its TPEFW pop-up store concept in a department store setting, where a selection of looks from designers’ past collections could be purchased on-site.

Next to such initiatives, what is also important for these newer names is that they learn what customers in Taiwan are looking for in comparison to those outside of the country. Seivson’s Shen, for example, said her goal was to present a more high-end, ready-to-wear style in Taiwan compared to her more artistic approach to the Japanese market. For Justin Chou, operations in New York and Paris are adjusted to match consumer preference, with colours being cited as the “most noticeable difference”. Price is also a factor. Many designers noted that local customers are less willing to purchase products for the same price as those in other countries, making it difficult to adjust and cater within the constraints of business costs.

While there are still learning opportunities, Taipei’s efforts cannot be denied. The fashion week itself is organised through cooperation between the Taipei City Government, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and other units, such as Condé Nast and the Taipei Textile Federation, each of whom are not associated with one another yet play a role in hosting certain events that seamlessly merge to create the feel of an all-encompassing fashion week. Between the runway shows, exhibitions and the business matchmaking fair, Taipei In Style, TPEFW as a whole is trying to facilitate almost all sides of the industry.

One way this is also taking shape is through exploring both B2C and B2B pathways. The opening show, for example, was held twice in the same night: firstly, for industry professionals, and secondly, for the general public, who expressed large demand for the event. Another way is to help smaller brands access production methods by working with local raw materials manufacturers, one of the main exporters of Taiwan, to open up opportunities in this field. While these ideas were just two of those noted by the deputy minister, there appears to be many plans on the horizon for TPEFW. All there is to do now is watch this space.