Going Italian

Vivienne Westwood launched the custom in Taipei last year to have museums stage fashion exhibitions, and this year it's the turn of the Museum of Contemporary Art to get in on the act. Beginning this coming weekend, the museum will host a show titled 'Fifty Years of Italian Fashion.' There's little I know about it so far, all I've seen was the ad for the show in the China Times this morning. It shows a screaming woman in an extremely colorful outfit with high wooden wedge shoes. I guess the white and red on the shoes and her green stockings together make the Italian flag. On both sides of the picture, the names are printed of numerous Italian design houses, from Missoni and Moschino to Brioni and Trussardi over Valentino and Salvatore Ferragamo.
If you want to know what it's all about, like me, you'll have to visit the exhibition. It's on from February 18 thru June 4 - yes, that's a really long time - and the museum's address is 39, Chang'an West Road in Taipei. The museum is closed on Mondays, and its web site is www.mocataipei.org.tw. That's where I'll be next Sunday.
Some distance away from the museum but on the same side of town, the Louis Vuitton store on Chungshan North Road is still not ready, but the central Taiwanese city of Taichung is opening its "LV" temple on February 23. Today's United Daily News says the store is aimed at both wealthy Taiwanese in the central part of the island, but also at eventual tourists from China, that is, if the government ever decides to allow them in in any large numbers. Let's wait and see. You can already guess, my next posting should be a report on the Italian fashion exhibition next weekend.