Taipei Fashion Week went mostly virtual this year

Taipei Fashion Week is only in its second annual year, and in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, the event had to take a different approach. The event, which was held from October 6 to 10, became a multimedia extravaganza as the organization continues to take an experimental approach with being so new. This year’s theme was RE:CONNEXT, a combination of the words Reconnect and Next. This theme came about out of hope for the organization wanting to reconnect and reconstruct for the future.

Although it is only in its second year, Taipei Fashion Week was generating major buzz around the world. This year, although the organization took a mostly virtual approach while still featuring a certain number of physical shows with local attendees, they were still able to generate audience and engagement on social platforms. Despite going heavily virtual, another reason Taipei Fashion Week was still able to create a buzz is because the city continues to be recognized for their ability to keep their coronavirus case numbers low. The country has taken very intense anti-pandemic measures, and for the few interactive events and such that were part of Taipei Fashion Week they were strict in following these guidelines.

While Taipei Fashion Week might be new, the cities importance to the global fashion community is not. Taiwan is a worldwide textile hub exporting over 2.5 billion dollars worth of textiles in 2020.

As part of their reimagined approach to Fashion Week, Taipei Fashion Week launched an online interactive buyer meeting to help designers interact with international buyers. Virtual shows combined VR technology, Taiwanese aborigines’ performances, and multimedia arts.

The brand’s featured this year included ALLENKO3, C JEAN, Dleet, DOUCHANGLEE, GIOAI PAN, if&n, INF, Luxxury Godbage by JUST IN XX, oqLiq, Seivson, SHIATZY CHEN, SILZENCE men, Syzygy, WEAVISM, WEIYU HUNG, and #DAMUR. This year to boost their social media presence, Taipei Fashion Week also launched a Fashion Challenge on Instagram that called for people to submit their best looks and use the hashtag #TaipeiFashionWeek and #RECONNEXT. The best performing looks on social media platforms were featured as part of the event’s opening media show.

“In a year that has thrown the world into a spin, the international fashion industry has been left in tatters,” said Lee Yung-te, minister of culture of the Republic of China. “Yet here we are holding Taipei Fashion Week in real life, just as it was meant to be. For this, I want to thank the people of Taiwan for a truly collective effort in beating the pandemic, and for helping put Taipei Fashion Week very much in the global fashion spotlight. A bright light has been cast on us, and we can show our island home, and the unfettered energy for fashion and design that exists here, to the world.”

This year, New York Fashion Week also took a mostly virtual approach with a limited number of physical shows and presentations and the overwhelming majority of designers choosing to showcase virtually through social media and the online Runway360 platform. Virtual and digital components became key to showcasing fashion collections this year with travel being restricted due to coronavirus. As the fashion industry is looking at Asia for growth, Taipei continues to be a city to have on the radar.

photos: courtesy of Studio25NYC