Located across the Taiwan Strait in South China, Shishi is one of the earliest production and distribution centers of the Chinese textile and garment industry, as well as one of the first to be named "Famous City of Casual Clothing in China" by the China Textile Industry Association and China National Garment Association.
The three-day event is designed to enhance the city's image and increase exchange between designers home and abroad, including mainland menswear designer Zeng Feng-fei, Taiwanese designers Gioia Pan and Rose Tsai.
Compared with other local fashion weeks that mostly focus on local brands, the 12- show West Taiwan Strait International Fashion Week stands out with its strong international representation, including menswear brand Jim's (UK), The Bauer Company (Spain) and Zuelements (Italy).
Fashion week opened Sunday morning with Jim's presenting during the English fashion segment entitled "Meet". Created by designer Jim Carter in 1978, the brand is known for adding artistic elements to casual designs. It entered the Chinese market in 2008 in cooperation with local enterprise Weles.
Aiming for the creative, fashion-sensitive urban male from 20 to 35, Jim's presented two collections in the show: "Tasteful" employed more of a post-modern elegance while his "Pioneer" collection focused on mix-and-match styles, covering both business suits and casual apparel.
Eighty designs were presented during the 30-minute show, all delivering the latest European fashion trends with simple cuts, strong on shades (black, white and grey), and avant-garde design techniques.
"We hope to design for the current young man's pursuit for comfort, personality and freedom," Jim's designer Dragon Hui told the Global Times after the show. "Therefore we abandoned the common boring styles of business suits and tried to design the collections with an artistic approach."
In contrast with the English flavor brought by Jim's, local menswear designer Zeng Fengfei ventured into men's fashion with an Asian philosophy approach.
Ranking among China's top ten designers, Zeng credits his 2010 Fall/Winter collection to the inspiration drawn from traditional Chinese styles.
Deeply influenced by Chinese philosophy, he explores both the original and true essence of Eastern fashion and design with his latest collection.
Through this approach, Zeng chose natural, simple and environment-friendly materials for his designs, especially traditional high-grade textile like sheer gauzes (xiangyun sha) in natural and mellow shades.
"With this collection, I also try to reflect the harmony between human and environment," said the designer.
The first day of Fashion Week finished with The Bauer Company show "Trendy but Classic, Elegant but New" by Spanish model-turned designer Jose Acosta.
The following two days included shows covering children's wear, materials from Kam Garment and designs by graduate students from regional fashion institutes, the event concluding tonight with Rose Tsai's bridal fashion show.
