Taipei Fashion Week’s associate director on the emerging market and evolving heritage

The face of Taipei Fashion Week has been under constant construction since its launch in 2018, as those behind the Taiwanese event continuously explore, experiment and shift their approach in order to grow awareness. This differs from the already well-established creative market that has a prominent place in the country in the form of cultural parks and crafts markets, where smaller entrepreneurs set up a base to display their wares to local and international consumers.

To learn more about Taiwan’s local industry and how the fashion week has adapted to the needs of its designers, FashionUnited spoke to associate director of Taipei Fashion Week, Chia Wu.

When Taipei Fashion Week first launched, what were some of the challenges it had to face?

Before 2018 there was no fashion week, but there were some fragmented fashion shows and activities. Some were organised by the local government or central government, but there was no consolidation. There was not a big umbrella to cover all those segmented activities. In 2018, this structure was then put into the formal Taipei Fashion Week.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Education, Taipei City Government, and some sub-organisations under these government bodies all participated in the fashion week. Through this new structure, international media began to come and new talent handled by the Ministry of Education were also included. It wasn’t an easy job due to different aims and operations. How to consolidate this was the biggest challenge in the beginning.

The first event happened in December 2018, which was not the right timing but the Minister of Culture at the time pushed it to happen. Then, in 2019, there was only one fashion week in October because we couldn’t match the international biannual schedule. Starting from 2021, the fall/winter and spring/summer seasons, in March and October, were implemented.

How relevant are these distinct seasons in Taiwan?

In Taiwan, the seasons themselves are not as distinctive as in Europe. I almost experience no winter here, for example. In department stores, brands offer spring/summer and fall/winter collections, and consumers may follow that. There are a lot of holidays in between – for example Chinese New Year or Mother’s Day – which tend to be the most popular shopping periods. Designers don’t create special collections for these periods, but for the commercial side they do a lot of promotion.

What challenges does the fashion week currently face?

Right now, I think the challenges are passed to the designers. Taipei Fashion Week is a ‘platform’ which, alongside the fashion week team, is already quite mature. So it is now on the designers. Firstly, if they have the capacity to run two shows a year. Secondly, young designers also face practical business challenges. Some are creative in design, but they are not familiar with the market and business, financial operations or marketing. Could they get sufficient textile to produce sufficient SKUs, for example? Do they have sufficient manpower in different functions? What would be the right business models?

Taipei Fashion Week has become a relatively mature platform compared to six years ago. Now it is about how to help designers upgrade themselves to the next level. We need to put extra support in beyond the shows – helping their business building, introducing them to international markets and international media.

Do designers show an interest in establishing physical retail?

Some younger designers hesitate to have physical stores or shops because the fixed cost is very high. Given that customer profiles are different, designers instead do pop-up stores because they intend to test the markets and test which sales channels are suitable. Then, after they have experience, they will set up at least one shop. This could be their flagship store, which is usually not that grand, but it allows them to invite real customers to visit the store.

Does the government or fashion week organisation help in this process?

Government bodies offer various funding and support for designers. Fashion week is one of them. Designers must come up with their own business models. What the government can help with is offering more market information, international connections and platforms.

Some of these young designers are also here at the simultaneous B2B event, Taipei In Style. Can you tell me about this concept?

The organisation invites smaller owners and designer brands to come here to demonstrate their pieces to enjoy more exposure and potential business. Some have participated several times already and have started to bring some fans to the event. Others have reported having much better business here than expected. They may not be as well-known in stores on the streets, but here more people can see their products and then they can direct the traffic to their own stores.

In the past, the fashion week didn’t allow them to do direct sales to consumers here, but for two years now they have been able to. As this year’s fashion week is much shorter and at a later time, however, there are less designers present. Typically we have 40 different smaller brands join [this season, there were some 20 names present, ed.], but it was too late in the season for many of them to join.

Away from fashion week, there are also small crafts markets and cultural parks around Taipei. Can you talk me through these initiatives?

In Taipei there are indeed several of what we call ‘cultural parks’. These used to be warehouses, but they have been renovated and transformed into creative cultural parks. These have been in Taiwan for over 20 years. The government has been pushing for cultural creativity in many aspects, such as music, film, exhibition, dining, handcrafted pieces etc. that inspire local people to go beyond 9 to 5 jobs. They want to do something for themselves, which is why there is an influx of small business owners.

I would say 98 percent of Taiwan business comes from small and medium businesses – with the creativity industry being a part of this. It isn’t that consumers are going out of their way to support them, they are just used to it.

What are the buying habits of younger consumers?

Many people just shop online, it’s quick and easy. There is also a group of people that like to visit smaller streets and find small shops. You see the younger generation hanging out in these areas during the weekend, spending whole afternoons here. I would say the government has put tremendous effort into initiating this.

Local fast fashion brands, like Net Fashion, are also popular with younger girls. They have been in Taiwan for many years, and the younger generation like to mix and match their pieces with different items.

Does this vastly differ from the mindset of older generations?

Some older Taiwanese fashion brands are only ready-to-wear, and they cater to a very stable clientele so they don’t need to do anything extra. They are usually located on the upper floors of department stores, above international names like luxury brands or Zara, and their customers just know they are there. Many of these customers have purchased from the local brands for 20 years. Luxury consumers are another group entirely. They usually hop between different famous international brands domestically and internationally.

Taiwan has a rich history in traditional dress. What relationship do shoppers, particularly younger ones, have with this style of clothing?

There have been a lot of changes. The second generation of designer brands here started in the 90s – for example Douchanglee and Gioia Pan, who both showed during the fashion week. They are what we consider the second generation of designer brands. There was no social media at the time, so people really needed to go to department stores or shops to see the clothing. It was during this vibrant period that there was a cultural boom and people became more wealthy, so there was a lot of movement.

Entering the 2000s, more international brands came to Taiwan with a lot of resources in sales and marketing, and quickly occupied the market. This means the earlier designer brands faced strong competition and have almost no voice so they begin to spiral downwards.

There were big changes from 2010, however. Johan Ku, a fashion designer who grew up in Taiwan, was selected for inclusion in British textbooks on knitwear with his works ‘Re-Sculpture’ and ‘Emotional Sculpture’. This came as a big surprise to the local industry, which realised it actually had homegrown talent. It woke people up and made them pay attention to local designers. International brands are still strong but now first generation designers are being heard again. This came with challenges, however. Designers face business scale issues, manpower issues, raw material shortages and they operate in a very niche market. For younger brands, these issues are bigger, and continue past 2018, when the fashion week was launched.

It was from 2010, however, that people became more aware of our local culture. This isn’t just in fashion, it is also in movies, music and more. We are now at a time when people are trying to bring all this back, and the government has begun pushing cultural heritage more so that it doesn’t disappear.

Despite this, younger generations are showing less interest in craftsmanship as they can’t make a living off it. This group is becoming more metropolitan, leaving their old towns for the cities. However, many also believe they owe something to their hometown. So after studying or working they may return to their village with their new experiences to apply there. This is why you see a lot of smaller entrepreneurs that are starting very diversified businesses.

Did the earthquake or ongoing political tensions have any impact on the industry in any way?

I think the impact we have faced in the industry is actually from the global economy. Worldwide, Taiwan was the seventh-largest textile exporter, and its functional and eco-friendly textile grades are important suppliers. So if the economy is unstable, that means there will be big issues for local manufacturers. However, with Nike, Under Armour and Lululemon all having big volume orders from the region, there should be no big changes.

Indeed, Taiwan is one of the leaders in functional textile production. How did that come about?

In the last 60 years, the government put effort into building up the industrial society, with a particular focus on practical industries that would survive in the global market. In Taiwan, compared to technological chip [integrated chip] production, textile is relatively small. After Covid, more international brands began using functional materials, because exercise and physical health became more globally important. There was a lot more demand so manufacturers built up and maintained stable businesses.

Is local production attainable for local designers?

Some designers can manufacture here in Taiwan, but others, if they have a big volume, rely on factories and partners in Mainland China or Vietnam. There is maybe not enough in the way of support in this area because many of the larger local manufacturing companies actually moved to China, Vietnam or Thailand because the cost of manpower is higher in Taiwan. There is also less demand for these types of jobs from younger people.

How do emerging designers approach the European market?

For young designers, they first operate one shop in Taiwan. Then there’s a tendency to zone in on one market. Apu Jan, for example, joined London Fashion Week, so he operates one shop in Taiwan and online worldwide, and that’s how he does his business. It’s a safe model, because you need to see how your design can fit into that specific market and then, once you are stable and have acquired higher profits, you can consider an expansion. They are very conservative in terms of fixed stores because they know that is very costly.

Does Taipei Fashion Week envision future connections with other international fashion weeks?

Taipei has started to have some conversations with Tokyo Fashion Week since October last year, largely for trade shows and talent exchange-related collaborations. These won’t affect the whole organisation, but it would be a good start.

What changes will we see for the next edition?

One thing we will definitely see is that there will be more brands in October’s show. This edition, the time was too late so many couldn’t join. We also want to keep a consistent number of international visitors.

How has the public responded to Taipei Fashion Week?

More people are beginning to be aware of the fashion week, with awareness slowly going beyond those in the industry itself. For this edition, the ‘L’Histoire et la Couture’ show by Justin XX was open to the public, and following it we received a lot of inquiries about the sale of the clothes. We had initially agreed to not sell any of these pieces, because it is a collaboration with the National Museum of History, so there were patent requirements and some of the owners rejected the option to commercially produce.

There are also a lot of key opinion leaders (KOLs) at the show. Some have personal connections with the designers, but they can also be selected to attend through a KOL agency who can send the relevant influencers for the brand. Through KOLs, the general public is also gradually aware of the fashion week.

Why was the fashion week held later than usual?

The new deputy minister of culture, Sue Wang, was appointed to the board in September. She came in with a lot of thoughts and doesn’t want to follow the same practices as the previous season. She wants to review everything and to fully understand the industry. That’s why it has taken a longer time.

FashionUnited was invited to attend by Taipei Fashion Week.