TAIPEI FASHION WEEK SS21
This is an era of rebirth and innovation, and Taipei Fashion Week returns this year with a whole new look. The Digital Terminal, which many will transit, uses an immersive theatrical experience to communicate the designers’ creative thinking. The Fashion Mart provides Taiwanese designers with a window to the consumer market. And for international buyers stuck elsewhere, an interactive matchmaking service in a novel digital format helps with business opportunities, marking a new approach for international fashion.
We cordially invite you to join us for this annual fashion extravaganza, and to be warmed by Taiwan’s glow as it sparkles on the international fashion stage.
– Lee Yung-te Minister of Culture
The pinnacle of the 2020 Taipei Fashion Week SS21 was the SS Launch Party hosted by the Ministry of Culture at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park on October 6th. A total of sixteen fashion shows by Taiwanese designers, two themed shows (Themed Exhibition for Materials & Themed Exhibition for Indigenous Peoples’ Culture), and over forty designer exhibits took place over the course of five days.
The theme of “Re” will connect all the inspirations and creative concepts found throughout the Taipei Fashion Week. The Chinese title of Re:connext leaves a blank space that is open to individual interpretation so the audience may express their own attitudes toward fashion. The English title Re:connext is the combination of “connect” and “next,” a hope for the fashion industry to reconnect on a personal and industrial level following the pandemic and a broken supply chain. The fashion show hosted by the Taipei City Government is titled Re:PLAY to redefine the possibilities of design through sustainability, respect, technology, innovation, urban vitality, and interdisciplinary integration
Fashion by Primitive Sense
Renown designer Yen Po Chun and his team will be responsible for the key visuals. The fundamental element of fiber will be combined with situational backgrounds of a digital era to create an image of culture and technology intertwined. Chun uses vibrant colors as metaphors with blue signifying elegance and personality while red represents passion and sensibility; the two colors connect sensibility with reason. The shifting landscape poses a challenge and we must adapt accordingly. As the primary platform for Taiwan’s apparel industry, how can the Taipei Fashion Week incite new discourse? How will fashion be redefined and how will the industry be reborn?
Virtual Escape
The year 2020 had an unusual beginning: the energy crisis, global warming, and a worldwide pandemic that has not only created social distances between humans but also redefined how we communicate. Quarantine, telecommuting, face masks, and temperature checks are fictional measures that have now become a part of our daily lives. The whole of humanity is at the crossroads as the unusual has now become the usual while existing norms are rendered obsolete. A shared belief system woven into the fabrics of society throughout the passing of time is now disintegrating and crushing the old world order. This is a sign and a revelation: nature is fickle and this time, the human race has been caught off guard. Now, more than ever, we will be exploring our relationship with the planet Earth, with others, with nature, with organic matters, and inorganic matters; the complex web of interrelationships have never been so provoking.
Fashion by Weavism
For the Taipei Fashion Week only, the Multi-Showcase Exhibition Hall at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park will be transformed into the Digital Terminal, a large floating island. Each and every visitor will become sky walkers that will be led on board by dedicated navigators after their identity is confirmed. The visitors will embark on a journey into a highly-developed dystopian society where conflicting elements of body and mind, the human and the mechanical, and reality and the virtual interweave. The world is filled with modified humans, fantastical creatures, supernatural devices, and extravagant apparel. Visitors will be able to experience the dystopian world for themselves, rewriting their stories and encountering surprises throughout.
Fashion by Allenko3
Digital Terminal is inherently a large imaginative space and each space can be further divided into multiple scenarios. Fashion houses can convey a message or display their artwork which could be outfits, textiles, images or sketches. We encourage brands to think outside of the box and showcase their own unique and untamed creativity.
Digital Terminal is a show for the Taipei Fashion Week that blends the virtual and the reality. The Digital Brands Exhibit will deliver an experimental immersive experience constructed by six outstanding designers and creators. The exhibit will take place in a dark venue and will be complemented with audio, projections, interactive technologies, and other forms of digital art. Available to the public throughout the entire day, the exhibit will combine the dynamic with the static. In this giant space, the lines between apparel and apparel, apparel and audience, and audience and others will be intentionally blurred, allowing the audience to roam freely within the flowing space as they get a closer look at the works and become a part of the Digital Terminal. Unlike conventional fashion shows and generic exhibits, each designer has been given a space where they can unleash their creativity and where their models can walk freely among the audience. The audience can interact with the designer and get an up-close look at the collection which will be complimented with installation art, audio, and visuals. The exhibits are open to the public for the entire day to help make fashion an accessible and tangible construct rather than a distant concept.
Fashion by C Jean