Tuesday, June 14, 2005

The Silent Summer of Fashion

As promised, here is my report on the new fashion course at the Eslite book store. In short, I am not allowed to tell you anything about it. At the opening of the first class, the staff asked the audience to keep anything they saw to themselves because of future publication plans. And I’ll stick to that request, but that doesn’t bar me from giving you an overall idea about the first evening.
To my surprise – and to the speaker’s surprise, because she mentioned it – the auditorium was nearly full, which meant there must have been about a hundred people there, and quite a significant number of the audience were – like me – men. And you saw all age groups and styles of people, young twentysomething fashion types, middle-aged women in high-end styles, young men with dyed hair and individualistic jeansy wear, and more soberly attired office workers. I was wearing my earth-colored Joseph Abboud striped shirt and a pair of ordinary leisure pants underneath, but that’s beside the point.
The speaker for the whole series is Ma Nien-tsu, editor with Le Figaro magazine, first with the Taipei-based Chinese-language edition, and now with the Beijing edition. Without revealing any secrets, her first lecture was an introduction to the major fashion TV shows in Taiwan, the world’s top fashion entrepreneurs, and current styles and designs. Marc Jacobs featured quite prominently in the lecture, and we saw slides of several of his collections.
Ma is going to take us through the history of fashion, design, style and brands from the 1950s until now in her following classes, which I will have to miss because of a one-month foreign stay. I do hope to be back in time though for what should be one of the highlights of this lecture series, a half-day visit to a prominent fashion boutique in Taipei. But more about that in the future.
This could be my last posting for quite some time now, as I move operations to another Asian town, but without my laptop. I’ll have to make do with whatever I can get my hands on, but it’s unlikely I will be bringing you much news. What I will do though, is keep an eye out for the local fashion scene wherever I go, and report after I get back to Taipei about a month from now. I just got my new batch of Taiwan Fashionista by Enzo Ciancia business cards today, and even though I’m not completely satisfied with their look, I will be generous in distributing them during my overseas trip. So when I get back in Taipei, I can get down to make a new design for the next batch.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Where's the Breeze?

The Breeze Center opened its smaller sister last Friday, and that evening I visited the center. The Breeze 2 is, as I said in my previous posting, the new incarnation of the ATT located on the north side of Chunghsiao East Road Section 4. But if it hadn’t been for the big pink posters showing Taiwan top model Lin Chi-ling on one side of the mall, I wouldn’t have noticed the change in ownership. The stores at the Breeze 2 seem to me to be precisely the same stores that were present at the old ATT: Tommy Hilfiger, Timberland, Roots. Inside, I noticed the outlet by Germany’s Odbo, with its typical black bags.
In the past, the main sales period in Taipei was in autumn, with the famous so-called Anniversary Sales in September-October. But this year, June is already climbing to the top of the sales extravaganzas with the Mid-Year Sales or Semi-Annual Sales, depending on the glossy brochure you’re reading.
Apart from straightforward sales with articles at reduced price, there are also the goodies you get if you spend a certain minimum amount with a certain credit card, and the system where you get points for what you buy which you can then exchange later for presents. The Sunrise Department Store is sticking to a traditional lottery with airline tickets and cellular phones as prizes.
The Breeze Center and the Idee already started early with their mid-year sales, the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi chain starts this coming Friday, and the Far Eastern Group – including the Sogo – kicks off its sales next week.
For those of you who can't bear the heat of a Taiwanese summer, Christian Dior already presented its Autumn/Winter highlights to a select public this week.
And tomorrow Monday, I’ll be attending my first class in Eslite’s Summer of Fashion. A report on that later this week, before I leave on a long overseas trip.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Renovation Week

Within a week time, Taipei sees the opening of two new shopping temples.
The ATT on the north side of Chunghsiao East Road Section 4 – which included brandname shops like Tommy Hilfiger, Timberland and Roots – has been taken over by the people behind the Breeze Center and will be reopened as Breeze 2 this coming Friday. A report on the new store will appear here after I visit it, maybe as early as opening day, or over the weekend at the latest.
Another converted shopping haven opened last week: the Far Eastern Department Store FE21 on Baoching Road, in the heart of Hsimenting. My first reaction on hearing that name – Hsimenting – has always been that is an area catering to teenagers, young girls, or people with limited budgets. In other words, Hsimenting is a hard sell for luxury stores of for high-end consumer adventures, witness a number of gelato places that went under.
The new Far Eastern is trying to avoid that fate by targeting young women, though without avoiding famous brands. Big names operating inside include DKNY, Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please (also a guest at Taipei 101) and Calvin Klein. There’s also a VIP lounge for ladies underwear, a new concept in Taipei.
The Far Eastern Department Store is of course a part of the same group which owns the Far Eastern Plaza and the Sogo, so failure is hardly likely. We’ll have to wait and see whether it will push the Hsimenting area upmarket, or whether it will remain an island in a sea of cheap boutiques and stalls.
Another long-awaited new shopping complex is located in the brandnew, tall greyish skyscraper close to Taipei 101 owned by President Enterprises. Originally, a Takashimaya was scheduled to open late last year. Then the local media reported President and Takashimaya had a fallout over rental fees, and the red neon sign advertising Takashimaya disappeared. One theory has it that the Breeze Center will move in, but we’ll wait and see.
In my postings in the near future, I hope to be reporting on the mid-year sales at several stores, including the Safari theme at the Idee, on the Eslite fashion course, and on the new Breeze. Then after next week, things will quieten down again for some time because of overseas engagements which will prevent me from making new postings. But more about that later.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

A Fashion Summer at Eslite

One of the most stylish places to go in Taipei outside Taipei 101 must still be the main Eslite book store on Dunhua South Road. The books, the cafes, the food and designer boutiques all succeed in attracting crowds no matter what the time of day.
An added incentive for me to visit has been the announcement that Eslite will be hosting a ten-part fashion course over the summer months.
The host is Ma Nien-tzu, founding editor-in-chief of “C’est Moi” magazine and former the Taiwan edition of “Figaro” magazine.
To me, the top attraction of the course is a half-a-day visit – that’s what it looks like in the brochure anyway – to a major international fashion company, either LVMH or Gucci. Still not clear whether that’s just a guided tour around the shops, or whether an executive from one of those firms will come and lecture at the programme. Probably a combination of both.
Otherwise, the course takes off with a description of what the main styles are for Spring/Summer 2005, and goes into a history of fashion since the 1950s, with an edition about the “anti-fashions” of hippie, punk and hiphop. Next up are those fashion accessories so popular here in Asia – bags. After reviewing fashions for “bad girls and weird men,” the course devotes one whole evening to Tom Ford before finishing off with the influence of art on fashion design.
I have always been sceptical about lectures and classes – just the word reminds me of musty auditoriums with a sleepy professor down at the front – but I’m willing to give this series a chance.
For those fashionistas interested, all you need to do is head to the Eslite first-floor desk and register. The full ten-part course costs 3,000 NT$, separate sessions go for 350 NT$ a piece, but do not include the LVMH or Gucci visit. Classes take place each Monday evening from 7:30 to 9:30, beginning on June 13, with the final episode on August 22.
In the next editions of Taiwan Fashionista by Enzo Ciancia: on safari at the Idee(s) mid-year sales, and first impressions of the Eslite fashion course. A course which I will not be able to attend completely, because I am scheduled to move out of Taiwan, just for a couple of weeks. More about that in my next postings.