I stopped in at the MOCA in Taipei to catch the exhibition on Taiwanese fashion designers, with quite a few pieces from Isabelle Wen.

Here’s the garment at the main entrance:

I was impressed at the level of skill and attention to detail some of the pieces had. I’ll show you a few of my favorites.

This cathedral bustier was made out of cutout pieces of leather layered and glued together. I’m a fan of cutouts, and the execution was expert. Just one small cut in the wrong direction, and you’d have to re-do it. Definitely inspired me, do you understand how hard it is to cut a perfect circle in thick leather?!

This angle shows the stained glass window print on thin fabric. In the write up about the dress, it was stated they used the latest technology to print on extremely thin transparent fabric to make it look just like a stained glass window. Presentation wise, I would’ve liked to see a light from the inside to showcase this. Upon closer inspection, it was obvious the black window panes had been darkened by either marker or paint. Perhaps they could’ve used the same cut-out technique from the bustier on the black parts. That said, this was my absolute favorite garment in the entire exhibition.

The next incredible example of workmanship was this honeycombed imitation silk dress.

The bodice has been smocked, but how the honeycomb effect is achieved has always been a mystery to me. Countless hours of work.

A lot of the pieces the curator included seemed to be influenced by Japanese designers, Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe of Comme des Garcon.

Junya Watanabe’s honeycomb dress in F/W 95 uses the same technique as above:

Loved this piece, the range of fabric textures, and the hardware:

Playing with print. Gorgeous muted colors:

I was wowed by this dress, made out of metal. Such attention to detail, this must’ve been a painstainly long labour of love:

The entire garment, I love the juxtaposition with the feathers – hard and soft

The same designer did this one out of wood, reminds me of a dress form:

And this, made out of long pieces of metal:

They showed one for every year going back 8 years, working with a new material each year. Definitely influenced by architecture.

In one of the rooms, they had mannequins decorated by different designers. Here’s another example of Rei Kawakubo influence, although I really like the skull faces coming out:

Kawakubo often plays with distorting the feminine figure, one of many examples:

And a more direct inspiration from Junya Watanabe’s own label in FW 2008

I enjoy the math that went into this pattern below, no easy formula, a la Lady Gaga Poker face? What the picture doesn’t make clear is that every surface is impaled with a sparkly headed pin.

Barbie, with what looks like sweet sprinkles, but is actually gel-cap pills:

Quite a few garments with the cage style on display here- but if this were an actually dress, I would totally wear it!

Now for some of the many Isabelle Wen garments.

This reminds of of The Cell:

I’m in love with the details and the collar on this jacket, just wish they put the sleeves through the armholes in the vest:

Yet another Comme des Garcon reference, layering clear plastic over a print:

I’ll update this with proof – as I just ripped a picture of a similar Junya Watanabe dress out of a magazine yesterday. Let me clear with my associations – I’m not saying these designers are copying – I can see the influence from these Japanese designers because I have looked at and paid attention to their designs for a long period of time. That said, what I have seen, and what the designer has seen before can be two totally different things. Being influenced and inspired by other designers is what keeps the industry perpetually redesigning itself. I don’t know one designer who would rather copy an entire garment, than make something with their own creativity to be proud of. The ones who copy are the business people at factories, not designers.

Last but not least, a dress adorned with the lucky red sachets. I appreciate inventiveness and being inspired by everyday objects around you.

This is the write up they had on the wall about the exhibition, remember if it’s too small you can Command + to zoom.