Some designs include a mandarin collar, an essential element of the qipao, an archetypal Chinese dress for women known for its slim fit and slits at the side. Other creations are decorated with abstract patterns such as those found in a Chinese ink painting. Still others allude to the elegance of Chinese white porcelain or are reminiscent of the curved lines of a Chinese vase.
The show, presented by Taiwanese designer and Shiatzy Chen co-founder Wang Chen Tsai-hsia Oct. 5, 2008, was of great significance for the fashion label because it was one of the official events of the Paris Fashion Week. Only the world’s top designers are invited by the organizers to take part in the official lineup introducing the upcoming year’s spring summer ready-to-wear collections.
Other Taiwanese designers have staged shows in the capital of fashion, but to date, only one other local label has been invited to join the biannual event. The first was Shawnyi, created in 2000 by two men in their 30s, with the brand taking part in 2005 and 2006.
Although the recent Shiatzy Chen show lasted less than 15 minutes, it introduced the Taiwanese label to an international audience. It was also the result of decades of effort.
This milestone in the brand’s history came just as it was celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Born in Changhua County in central Taiwan, Chen Tsai-hsia was a dressmaker in her uncle’s factory in the late 1960s. In 1972, she met her husband, Wang Yuan-hong, a salesman with business acumen in the textile industry. The couple moved to Taipei soon after their marriage and founded Shiatzy International Co. in 1978. Shiatzy, literally translated as “styles of China,” has become known mainly as a women’s clothing label, although it has also been designing men’s wear since 1987. Its styles have been refined over the years as Chen follows an idea she describes as “Chinese style as the fundamental concept, Western style for practicality.”
Chen’s attempt at neo-Chinese chic that merges East and West came at just the right moment. In the late 1970s, mainland China was ready to begin opening up, while the rest of the world was just starting to make contact with the Middle Kingdom and explore its culture. For Shiatzy Chen, this was a good time to ride the wave of interest in all things Chinese.
Nevertheless, she stressed the key to brand recognition has been the diligent attitude of people working for the label, not the mainland’s development or the craze for Chinese-style goods and entertainment. This attitude is shared by Shiatzy’s team, which now consists of more than 400 staff members, including 20-odd designers led by Chen.
After exporting to Europe, Japan and the United States during the 1980s, Chen looked to Paris, setting up a workshop there in 1990 as a way to continue the label’s development. “She was quite farsighted in doing so,” said Vanessa Yu, fashion director of Marie Claire Taiwan, adding that the move helped to keep Chen’s designs current. At this outpost abroad, Shiatzy designers could gain help from French patternmakers and familiarize themselves with international trends.
It seems inevitable that a fashion brand featuring Chinese aesthetics would also eventually take off in mainland China. The company set up its first mainland shop in Shanghai in 2003 and launched its flagship store there two years later. According to media reports, more than 700 celebrities showed up for the grand opening. To date, Shiatzy has 11 points of sale in Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland. In Taiwan, the label has a total of 38 retail outlets.
After years of running a factory in suburban Taipei, the company opened its second one in Shanghai in 2007. More than 100 workers including dressmakers and embroiderers are employed to produce tens of thousands of clothing items annually based on over 400 styles created by its designers.
For the Taiwan market, which remains the major source of revenue, the company stages fashion shows twice a year. Unlike most big international fashion pageants, Shiatzy’s shows on the island launch collections only for the current season. This is because local events are mostly for Shiatzy’s VIP clients, who purchase the clothes for their own use, rather than commercial buyers.
The label has also been trying to diversify its product line. About three years ago, it began expanding its catalogue with accessories—sold in all Shiatzy stores—and furniture, available at the three flagship stores in Taipei, Shanghai and Paris. It even opened a teashop in downtown Taipei last November. “When a label develops to a certain level, you have to take care of your clients in other aspects,” Chen explained.
Shiatzy’s choice of location for its boutiques is another promotional strategy, such as its five-story flagship building in Taipei flanked by Gucci and Louis Vuitton. “In fact, department stores and malls have placed us alongside world-class luxury labels,” said Anthony Hsieh, creative and marketing director for the fashion house.
Of course, the most significant boost to marketing for Shiatzy was the official invitation to Paris Fashion Week. The fashion house now plans to take part in the event regularly in order to build a global reputation. It will also ramp up advertising in high-end Western publications. “About six department stores in Paris placed orders after the show, and that’s why we’ve now allocated a budget for ads in the French editions of influential fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle,” Hsieh said.
For this label, ascending to the heights of the fashion world has been a steady rise built on successive years of acclaim. In 2003 The Wall Street Journal Asia considered Shiatzy the most popular local fashion brand in Taiwan, and the following year the London-based Financial Times included the label on its “what’s hot” list for 2004. Still, Chen is modest about her company’s achievements. “There’s still a huge gap between Shiatzy and the world’s top labels,” she noted. Perhaps she is right, but certainly Shiatzy Chen seems to be one of the homegrown fashion brands most qualified to expand globally.
—Adapted from the January 2009 issue of Taiwan Review
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