fashion: put it all on me

Lady Gaga: Fashion

After hotpot, the group split up. I, being insanely full, had some difficulty with decision-making when it came to defining what, exactly, I'd do next. I wanted to stay with Amelia and Susan (both because I like them and because I view friends who've been here a while as security blankets) but I also really wanted to go shopping. Clothes shopping. I'd been dying to do so since I came here and saw all the clothing stores. Sensing my uncertainty about what my options were, Susan told me there were a lot of shops in Ximen. "You'll love shopping in Ximen," she said.

She was so right.

I hadn't given Ximen credit for the number of little shops it has. When you start going into places and looking through the racks, you realize there's a lot. You also realize that half the stores have all the same things, and most of them carry the exact same styles, but sometimes you'll find something different or for a better price or of better quality, so it's always good to keep looking. (Side note, the quality of clothes in Taiwan depends on where you shop. If you want good, quality clothing, you'll be paying a few hundred quai more, and probably won't find anything that fits the bill in a street shop. If you want something cheap and don't mind that it won't last that long, you can spend almost nothing and find the same item almost anywhere.) I spent hours walking up and down the streets and going through shops, and finally, finally I bought a shirt, a poncho-type knit cover to go over a tank top and a pair of shorts. Finally, my shopping-in-Asia journey has commenced!

I've always been entranced by fashion. Not by what's in style or what looks good, but how each individual uses it to say something about themselves. Everything from the clothing pieces to the overall "look" is an expression of the person's idea about him or herself, and how he or she wants to be viewed.

This is one of the reasons I've always been enamored with Asia, particularly Japan. The sense of fashion there is very theatrical, and more concerned with having a "look" right down to the details. Just by looking at people, you can tell what they think of themselves and what they want others to think of them. Fashion is wordless self-expression, visual communication. The way people dress here is much more stylized than it is in the US, at least where I'm from in Ohio. Even adults (well, the ladies) are wearing frilly shirts, detailed shoes, pants and jackets with a few more enhancements than you'd see on the same clothes in the US. Not everyone, but enough of them that it doesn't stand out; it's natural. You'll also see girls with really short skirts, high heels, embellished tops--but they only stand out because their look is more complete than, say, that of the person in denim shorts with a cute top and a necklace. The people with "complete" looks don't stand out the way they would in the US, where people would think, "Whoa, you're trying way too hard to get attention, hon."

And maybe it is, for some people, but then again, no matter where you go, there will always be people who worry too much about their appearance and not enough about who they are, just like there will always be nice people and rude people and caring people and people who wouldn't stop to help you if you were on fire. A friend here theorized to me that there are the same number of a-holes in every culture, no matter where you go. I'm sure it's the same with fashion; some people dress up here because they're smart and certain of themselves and the look completes them, and some people are more worried about what people will think of how they look than of how they feel about looking that way.

Me, I've always tried to be the former kind of person, but often end up as the latter. Dressing up for myself, to be honest, has always baffled me. Partly because, seriously, where are you going in those clothes? The grocery store? Who wears heels to the grocery store? How many occasions do we, as Americans, have in our daily lives to wear the things that say who we are, not where we work or how many Race for the Cures we participated in? Around here, people go outside, in public, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every errand in between. People see you on the street, in the bus, in the MRT, at a restaurant... everywhere. There are so many non-work-related occasions to just be yourself fashion-wise that it's a little insane.

Which is what I really, really like. In the US, I usually had to base my fashion choices on what I could wear to work, and then I'd end up wearing those clothes to other places, except I'd wear jeans instead of black or tan pants. I rarely bought clothes that said something about me, or were expensive, because I thought, "Where am I going to wear this?" The other day I went shopping, and I got a few pieces of clothing that I'll never wear to work, or maybe not even to an outing with my friends. I might just wear them when I go to eat lunch or dinner. Because I like them and they make me happy.

Insane, right?

I'm definitely going to try to devote some more blog time to the fashion in Taiwan, the things I see and buy, what I see people wearing, that kind of thing. In the mean time, here's me in the clothes I bought in Ximen yesterday!