And Tod's it was

Just this posting to confirm that yes, it was the new Tod's boutique opening that Michelle Yeoh attended in Taipei yesterday. She bought an item for her father's birthday in Malaysia today. On TV I saw her standing next to Diego della Valle, the founder and CEO of Tod's, who had come over especially from Italy for the opening. Despite this quite rare appearance, the media here barely put in a word about him, and I haven't seen any interviews so far. If it were the chief of an electronics firm or a car company, I'm sure all the papers would've had the story, but fashion is not - or not yet - on the radar of most business writers here.
The fashion section in the Taiwan News today dwells on the opening of the Louis Vuitton store in Paris, on the lack of major trends at the Spring/Summer 2006 shows in the same town, and on Victoire de Castellane's miniature designs for Dior's jewelry division.
The United Daily News presents a new pair of shades from Louis Vuitton, and heralds the start of the sales season on Taipei's east side: New York New York, which includes a prominent Armani Exchange, begins on October 20, while the Mitsukoshi department stores and Taipei 101 wait until the following weekend.
The Liberty Times, a Chinese-language newspaper I rarely look at, devoted one page to Gioia Pan, the queen of Taiwanese knitwear. The paper shows off lots of black-and-white dresses, with one color dominating and the other present at the edges, as well as jewelry and brown knit bags with a floral design. Pan's works are for sale at Taipei 101, but her new store next to the Grand Formosa Regent is still not ready, though I've been seeing signs of increasing activity there. Maybe when I return from my Thai trip, it'll be up and going.