Olympics fever takes over Taipei Fashion Week

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The opening of Taipei Fashion Week this season had a twist. Rather than models in high fashion, athletes from Taiwan’s Olympics delegation walked the runway wearing sportswear collections that riffed on the colours, symbolism and mythology of the upcoming games in Paris.

It was a play to broaden Taipei’s reach beyond the usual fashion week attendees. The official uniform of the Taiwanese teams — designed by Justin Chou, founder of Just In XX — was displayed during the trade fair adjoining the main show space (a disused factory building in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park). Chou collaborated with local craftspeople, including “national treasure” Yen Yu-Ying, a master weaver of banana tree fibre, as well as abstract artist Paul Chiang. A wider Olympics-themed showcase involved Chou and five other brands: C Jean, Jamie Wei Huang, Pces, Story Wear and SYZYGY.

Taipei Fashion Week, founded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture in 2018, runs biannually during April and October, attracting around 35,000 visitors a year. The initial goal was to “march onto the global scene”, said deputy minister of the Ministry of Culture Sue Wang, at a press conference marking the start of this season (which ran from 24 to 29 April). But she admitted that it has taken time to do this; the pandemic curtailed its expansion plans. “Now, we regard ourselves as a domestic fashion week. Our main market is Asia. But over the years we’ll be learning and struggling to grow into a well-known global fashion week,” she continued.

A handful of Taiwanese designers have cut through the global noise in recent years. Taiwan-based Namesake, founded by three brothers, was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2023, and Taiwanese designer Chiahung Su was shortlisted this year. Founded in 2020, the latter specialises in hand-dyeing, works with indigenous craftspeople and has a store in the Dadaocheng area of the city.

Chou is on a roll. Away from the Olympics celebrations, he hosted a show for Just In XX that was open to the public — a first for Taipei Fashion Week. The collection on show was a capsule designed in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, which saw Chou draw inspiration from Taiwanese art, ceramics and textiles. Silk dresses, woven overcoats and elongated shirts all morphed into wearable artworks.