At Pirate King (海盜王), located at 4, Lane 5, Alley 491 (all addresses are for Yongji Road), staff waited for customers to browse before interrupting with useful advice. One asked a man who was inspecting a purple T-shirt who it was for. When the customer said it was for his girlfriend, the salesman suggested that he go for black instead. “I wouldn't say that if you were buying it for yourself,” he explained. “But since it's for someone else I recommend black because the print matches the color better.” Another customer was advised that the baggy jeans he liked didn't suit his height.
Manager Kevin Lin (林義凱) has been selling clothes for nine years and only hires people who are interested in clothes. He visits Japan once each season to scout the latest street fashions. “We sell stuff that you see in Japanese magazines,” he said. “It's all made in China because that's where the factories are.”
His advice on shopping at Wufenpu: Don't waste time on the outlying shops, but head straight for the market's center. And, “if you spend NT$200 to NT$300 more, the quality really goes up.”
This rule did not apply to some of the T-shirts in his store, which at NT$500 were selling for roughly NT$200 less than the same items at a nearby shop.
Wackier clothes can also be found at Wufenpu. If you want to dress like a woman who's into Chthonic (閃靈) or Sisters of Mercy, you might want to check out Pumk (衣領風騷), at 28, Alley 5, Lane 443. A mannequin several doors down displayed an outfit that could be best described as a marriage of a white sailor-style uniform blouse and a black wedding dress.
And of course, there's lots of T-shirts with strange logos. One of the best spotted recently bore gold sequins, the picture of a woman with her legs kicked back, and the message: “Give pleasure to me/Let's dance together in my body.”
Try finding that at Sogo.
Wufenpu is located near the Yongchun or Houshanpi stations on the MRT's Bannan line.
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