"Actually I did not want to do anything and I could not afford to do the runway presentation, so the fashion-as-art exhibition was a response to these terrible things."
But adversity is the mother of invention and Wen has risen to the challenge before. Her new collection is strong and she has employed an operation director, Sandrine Boscaro Compain, to take her brand to the next level, especially abroad.
The French-Italian business school graduate said she was consolidating operations and developing sales and marketing strategies.
"I have no logic, I need someone to do this for me," Wen said.
"She should not be running the business all on her own," Compain agreed. "She needs someone else to concentrate on this, she is an artist, a visionary."
But whether she stays in Taiwan is another question. She said the country was "totally crashing" and was obviously feeling bruised by the financial crisis at Idee and the attitude of Taipei 101's managers.
It appeared she wanted to escape her problems here, as much as succeed elsewhere.
"Maybe my ideas are not totally suitable for Taiwanese and if I go elsewhere then they will appreciate me more. Perhaps this is the way," Wen said.
"I have no doubts she should go abroad, but first you have to manage growth and now we are preparing for this. We must structure the company properly to make it international," Compain said.
As for whether the direction would be east or west, this seemed to be moot. Wen mentioned Shanghai and Beijing, but Compain said Europe and America appreciated Asian designers more.
Either way, Wen is moving forward. As she says, "fashion is art for the future" and what she designs today is what we will be wearing tomorrow.
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