2020 Taipei Fashion Week SS21 | RE:CONNEXT

The concept of fashion week originated in Paris During the first half of the 20th Century, Council of Fashion Designers of America organized “New York Press Week” by clustering fashion shows into a particular time frame. This was viewed as the predecessor of New York Fashion Week. Italy followed by holding a fashion week exclusively for Italian fashion in old town Florence. London Fashion Week started in 1970s. Eventually, these international fashion weeks became regular events. In recent years, numerous cities all over the world started to organize their own fashion week. Cases in point include Tokyo and Seoul. These fashion weeks have evolved with individualistic styles. As Taipei Fashion Weeks enters its third year, the wide variety of events and richness of the program within the frame of the fashion week and special events and programs with vibrant local personalities make Taipei Fashion Week a spectacular must-go fashion event. Extending with this concept, the theme shows have become the element that best reflects the current state, energy and future outlook of Taiwan’s garment industry.

For Taipei Fashion Week SS21, although Taiwan is affected by global COVID-19 pandemic, we are fortunate to be able to go around with our normal routines. All precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of the event. It is still a good time to ask ourselves: what can we do for this land we walk upon? What kind of future do we envision for this land? The changes we went through forced us to reexamine the relationship between Taiwan’s garment industry with human, time, and the land. With that in mind, the two theme shows selected for Taipei Fashion Week are Primitive Sense and Virtual Escape.

“We live in a backwards time. We can regain some small sense of that old membership by discovering the original lineaments of our land.” - Gary Snyder, American Poet. Practice of the Wild.

Inspiring ourselves through sustainability, ecosystems, and ancient crafts to evoke a primitive wisdom of ancient times where humanity suffered but also persevered against the heavens. Land should not be forgotten and each article of this planet has nourished our cultures. We must seek within ourselves for an innate instinct and create value through recycling.

KEYWORD：LAND / CORE / CIRCULAR

Brands: Paru Cunuq／Shih Chien University Fashion Design × Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines／SABRA ANDRE

“Imagine a human hand holding a flat, rectangular object that fits perfectly into the palm. Everyone knows this image. It is well-established in our canonical perception of the everyday medial image flood. And simultaneously imitated daily through a physical gesture by most of us. The object is a smart phone; the hand is part of a body. The skin is our last barrier, and the device comes closer.” -Marie-Eve Levasseur, German Artist. I’ve got you under my skin.

Let us embark on a journey into the digital realm, stepping into a transmission pod that takes you from our reality into a dark and infinite digital world constructed from the reveries of our designers. Glide between the data streams and witness codes pierce the dark night like a meteor, leaving nothing but remnants of a light that was once there. Observe each fabric through a microscopic view and adorn technical textiles against extreme weathers created through neurological storms. The functionality of contemporary apparel exceeds any imagination and we need not remain bounded. Let us adopt new materials and engage in strange experiments to craftextreme forms and let creativity and ideas collide to form new possibilities.

KEYWORD：DIGITAL / EXTREME / EVOLUTION

Brands: 4DIMENSION® ／ ENVOL AVEC NING ／ IONISM ／ GUERRILLA-GROUP ／ WISDOM® ／ SEALSON