Taiwan Today

On the evening of February 21 this year, works by 29-year-old Taiwanese designer Chen Shao-yen appeared before the style experts and fashion critics at London Fashion Week, one of the fashion world’s most prestigious events. Chen’s designs were on display at the show because he was a graduate of the master’s program at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, where he first enrolled in classes in 2003. The school’s graduation collections have long been considered an integral attraction of London Fashion Week, and Central Saint Martins alumni have gone on to establish a strong presence in the fashion scene as creative forces behind major corporate brands, as well as creators of their own labels. The school’s famous graduates include the legendary Alexander McQueen (1969−2010), whom Chen interned with from October 2005 to March 2006.

Chen is one of a growing number of young Taiwanese designers who are winning international recognition. November 19, 2009, for example, saw designer Jasper Huang receive an International Designer Award for superior ability in working with fabric from the International Apparel Federation (IAF) at an award ceremony held in New Delhi, India. Two weeks after Huang’s IAF award, Johan Ku, a 30-year-old designer from Taipei, won the top award in the avant-garde category at the Gen Art’s Styles International Design Competition in New York. Ku’s elaborate knit dresses were selected over the designs of four other finalists from Israel, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Chen Shao-yen’s fashion vision and design capabilities became known in top European fashion circles in the form of knit dresses from his Body as Clothes series, the collection he completed in 2008 to fulfill requirements for his bachelor’s degree at Central Saint Martins. In April 2009, Chen’s Body as Clothes series was awarded first prize at the prestigious Weekend Le Vif in Brussels, Belgium. This annual fashion competition invites a dozen talents from the world’s leading design programs—at schools such as the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons The New School for Design in New York, ESMOD International Fashion University Group headquartered in Paris and the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium, as well as Central Saint Martins—to present their collections.

Tension between Materials

Chen says that the Body as Clothes series, as well as his Waver collection from this year, consists of conceptual works that elaborate upon the dialectical relationship between different kinds of material, as well as the relationship between clothing and the human body. The tension between diverse materials can be seen in the Body as Clothes collection, in which dresses meld chunky-knit tops with finer fabric on the lower sections. The elegantly white Waver series also uses a range of materials, with patches of puffy, frayed nylon twine appearing on top of smoother fabrics such as Lycra and cashmere. The result is an intriguing contrast between lush and coarse yarns. “I focus more on original materials than other designers,” Chen says, “and dedicate myself to the process of starting from scratch with this or that knit fabric. I work with the fabric until a pattern gradually takes shape.”

The dialectic between clothing and body is evident in the contours of the Waver series, in which the voluminous patches of nylon transform and exaggerate the shape of the arms, chest and belly. This type of avant-garde experimentation has drawn notice from international celebrities such as Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, who has indicated interest in wearing Chen’s designs, as well as from American pop star Lady Gaga, who has said she wants to collaborate with the Taiwanese designer.

With his inclination toward arts like painting, Chen was not very happy as a student until he entered Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School in Taipei in 1996. While Chen studied a great range of subjects at Fu-Hsin including sketching, watercolors and oil painting, architecture and sculpture, he became increasingly drawn toward three-dimensional varieties of art. He eventually chose to major in metalwork and jewelry design at the vocational senior high school. Although he had yet to begin formally studying fashion design, Chen found himself intrigued by the creative works of Japanese designers such as Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, who were then having quite a collective impact on the fashion world, especially in France. “I’d paid little attention to the art of fashion before and usually wore the clothes my mom bought for me,” he recalls. “But those unconventional designers opened my eyes to the design possibilities of clothing. They showed me that a piece of clothing could be conceived as a piece of sculpture, for example.”

Meanwhile, although Chen’s interest in fashion was growing, his metalwork designs were attracting notice. While still a student at Fu-Hsin, for example, he won prizes at a diamond design competition sponsored by the De Beers Group and Elle magazine, as well as a pearl design competition sponsored by the Japan Black Pearl Promotion Association and the South Sea Pearl Consortium. Chen believes that the technical experience he gained from metalwork equipped him with the subtle handiwork skills required for experimentation with new dress materials and designs such as those found in his Waver series. “Machines can do part of the job,” he says, “but fundamentally these works are done by hand.”

Middle Ground

For Chen, London offers an ideal middle ground between a spirit of lively experimentation and strong historical and cultural traditions. “This city offers an interesting life experience that can spark fresh thinking and inspire new ideas,” he says. “Some of the world’s biggest cultural movements, like the punk and underground movements, had their origins in London.” As a result of his time in the city, he says he has been inspired to more freely and fully express himself, to explore his own limits. “London and Paris are cities that show more appreciation for artistic creativity than other major cities such as New York, which has a more commercial feel,” he says.

Chen observes that while Taiwanese students are used to their teachers telling them exactly what to do, the Western education model he experienced in London places greater emphasis on inspiring students to explore their own potential. He says that in comparison with Asian students, who usually feel somewhat inhibited about speaking out in class, students from Western countries tend to be quite outspoken about their thoughts, albeit sometimes excessively so.

Chen points out that while a designer does not need to excel in all of the details of the dressmaking process, such as sewing or pattern making, he or she must still possess the capacity to adequately communicate concepts to dressmakers. The most important qualities a designer must have, he says, are the ability to absorb and merge visual input from many sources, as well as a passion for unique self-expression.

Chen draws visual input for his creations from a variety of sources. One has been the works of teachers and students at Central Saint Martins itself, which is known for its fashion-forward design, while another source has been London’s many museums and art galleries, many of which are easily accessible because they do not charge entry fees. He found himself intrigued, for example, by the images of people and their garments in the works of French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840−1917), who is noted for a style that melds realistic and unfinished elements. Chen has also drawn visual inspiration from the world of film. In the Waver collection, for example, he evokes the charming fur coats worn by actresses in old American movies by manipulating the nylon twine to resemble fur.

While many sources of his visual inspiration come from the West, Chen’s work, like that of fellow designers Jasper Huang and Johan Ku, also embraces Taiwanese elements. The intricately layered fringes of his Waver series, for example, were partly inspired by the shimmering, overlapping waves seen on the coastline of Yilan, his hometown in northeastern Taiwan. Chen says he is still searching, however, for the best way to make local culture a part of his designs, as he does not want to pursue a forced representation of Taiwanese style. So far, he has ruled out the use of specific visual elements or typical symbols from Taiwan, while Jasper Huang chooses to incorporate the brilliant patterns of peony blooms that first became popular on the island during the 1960s and 1970s. For Chen, Taiwanese culture resists precise definition because of its mixture of different elements, including those from mainland China, Japan and Western societies. There is a cultural distinction about Taiwan, he says, but it is complex and subtle. “More often than not, Taiwanese people actually point to a Chinese influence when they want to highlight local values,” Chen says, “but there’s still something unique to Taiwan.”

In the future, when Chen is satisfied that he has arrived at the right method for manifesting the cultural influence of Taiwan, the designer says he is likely to incorporate it in a fashion show rather than present it in a specific design piece. The real glamour of the fashion industry, he believes, lies in the dramatic nature of the fashion show, with its combination of various theatrical elements, including music, lighting and staging. There are also the striking poses of the models on the catwalk, of course, as well as the unusual designs they wear, which are intended to present a designer’s concept or theme in a distinctive manner.

Exciting Shows

Chen cites the exciting fashion shows held by Hussein Chalayan and the late Alexander McQueen as major influences. “The theme of their shows could be about the feel of an era, the deconstruction of traditions or an introduction of future technology,” Chen says. As he did earlier under McQueen, Chen also interned with Chalayan, who is of Turkish descent, from August 2006 to February 2007.

As with any fashion designer, Chen’s ultimate goal is to see his designs on the catwalk at his own solo shows. Until then, he says, he will focus on building his individual brand. “Taiwanese people have developed a degree of taste in fashion in recent years,” he says, “but they largely turn to foreign brands because they find local designs somewhat lacking.” Chen may be correct in his belief that the domestic fashion industry still has some way to go before it achieves such acceptance, but given the increasing international recognition that he, Johan Ku and Jasper Huang are attracting, the ascendance of Taiwanese fashion designers may be close at hand.

Write to Pat Gao at kotsijin@gmail.com