Highlights of Taipei Fashion Week: Spring / Summer 2023

Taipei Fashion Week’s fifth year officially started from 13 to 17 October and to the end of the month. There were 18 fashion shows, several at the main venue, Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, and others at various places around Taipei City or online. 

Also, here came a showroom holding business matching for visitors or buyers to see new collections, including apparel, designer and accessory brands. There was also an exhibition to show the array of Taiwan Fashion Design Award, the well-known official fashion competition in Taiwan. Furthermore, there was a pop-up shop of designer brands in a local department store to engage more customer interactions.

Generally, Taipei Fashion Week SS23 provides an atmosphere for people to see the fashion industry in Taiwan. From fashion shows to showrooms, also B2C business matching encourages more people to participate in this fashion festival.

Here are some highlights and key trends from Taipei Fashion Week 2023SS.

The opening show is between traditional and contemporary.

The opening show of the fashion week was called: “CrossLab – Dialogue between Indigenous Art and Fashion”, which invited five indigenous artisans from different tribes in Taiwan and matched five other fashion designers. They use craftsmanship to create 50-piece fashion designs that combine delicate handcrafts from traditional and contemporary silhouettes.

During the show, two pieces of traditional garments from indigenous artisans and eight other design pieces from fashion designers. Compared to traditional ones showing exquisite handcrafts directly, fashion designers try to transfer those elements into a brand-new clothing concept. They use conventional features like handmade textiles, patterns, and embroidery with simple and contemporary silhouettes or printings to adapt these cultural details into people’s daily lives.

Young talents bring new blood into the industry.

Many events were held for young talents during the schedule, such as Taiwan Fashion Design Award and two other shows for emerging designers. So there were many creative concepts and environmental awareness of garments to stimulate this industry. Such as nature elements or society’s ideas to awaken people’s attention. Also, they put upcycle, technical fabric, dead stock and multi-function to achieve their sustainable ideas for garments.

Function meets fashion design.

Surprisingly, many functional fabrics and details were hidden in these fashion designs, but they look fancy and useful. Taiwan’s textile industry has the leading technique, such as the first recycled polyester fabric made from plastic bottles or other yarns with functions to protect wearers. However, these sources were usually used for big outdoor wear brands, but there is more cooperation between textile manufacturers and fashion designers at this time. Also, compared to practical apparel that used to feature useful functions but looked dull and outdoors, designers now transfer these functional fabrics or buckles into modern style for people to easily adapt to daily lives.

Denim is coming back, and also a mix-and-match style.

Denim is a significant trend during fashion week. Especially many brands use patchwork to combine shades of denim and seem inspired by upcycling. Also, mix-and-match between diverse patterns is more common thanks to the youthful aesthetic of Gen Z. 

Furthermore, there were details like the combination of mixed materials, particularly the sheer one that was used a lot. Fringes on the fabric’s surface also bring some elegance to the massive market. 

In general, there was not too specific style in Taipei Fashion Week 23SS, unlike other well-known international fashion weeks with quite a particular atmosphere. For instance, London Fashion Week is a hub for emerging talents or luxurious and catch-eye drama shows from Paris. Taipei seems uncertain between cultural, traditional, innovation, or something else you can’t define. It is different from others where you can easily determine what will be on trend next, such as we can obviously see Barbie pink has already shown its power on social media and each runway. But maybe this kind of mixture and undefinition just present the typical style of this city.

Additionally, now designers have more sense of building their brands and know well to keep their design between business and creation, compared to the designers I met a couple of years ago in Taipei IN Style (former Taipei Fashion Week). Some just put their students’ work directly into the market a few years ago without a clear business picture. But you can see a clearer vision of themselves through their collection. Also, the expectation and change they want to bring to this industry. 

It is really grateful to see the progress of fashion education, the creative environment and the more open sourcing channel in Taiwan to make these talents keep chasing their design dreams.

Taipei Fashion Week may still look chaotic, but it has the potential to find its style to present city fashion.

Taipei Fashion Week official website: https://tpefw.com

Watch fashion shows: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8n5pOXW4YLU_iHhhsU8HVw/featured