Fashionistas look no further

For fashionistas and couture junkies in the Taipei area, the government's "Branding Taiwan" initiative is a boon. The project aims to promote Taiwanese brands on the international market. One current effort is Taipei in Style, (TIS, 台北魅力國際時尚展), a fashion fair in its second year, which will host over 120 fashion-related companies.

Organized by Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF, 中華民國紡織業拓展會) and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 中華民國對外貿易發展協會), the fair will be held this weekend in the trendy Xinyi district.

International buyers are invited to participate in seminars and business meetings; fashion shows held by well-known local brands such as Les Enphants Group (麗嬰房), LinLi Wedding (林莉國際婚紗) and Carnival (嘉裕西服) will be staged.

Taiwanese knitwear label Gioia Pan (潘怡良) and top designers Charin Yeh (葉珈伶) and Pun Dai-lee (潘黛麗) will also launch their latest collections along with those of men's wear designer Alex Ladino from Columbia and Hong Kong's Dorian Ho (何國鉦). A variety of Chinese labels will also be there, along with major buyers from China, where the fashion market grows at a rate of 70 percent annually, according to TTF.

Tomorrow and Sunday are open-house days during which members of the public can wander through the more than 180 booths, which will offer an array of fashion commodities from designer clothes, sportswear, off-the-rack clothing and lingerie to all the accessories one can possibly hope to find.

Besides sumptuous designer brands, the wide selections of ready-to-wear apparel, ranging from yoga-wear to bamboo charcoal products and nano-tech items, can satisfy people of different needs while the bright, creative designs by young local designers and the Aboriginal labels broaden the horizon with cultural motifs.

The government's agenda and trade prospects aside, the fair promises to be an excellent opportunity for the fashion-conscious to take a step ahead of the pack.