{ "title": "We visited for you... the Taipei YongLe fabric market!" , "date": 1680968888 , "content": [ [ "hidden", "Taipei Yongle Fabric Market" ] , [ "p", "The YongLe fabric market, the largest of its kind in Taiwan, occupies three storeys of a government building in the colourful Datong district. The market, named after a Chinese history period famous for its prosperity, will certainly make fashion enthusiasts equally happy (Yong Le = 永樂 = eternal happiness)" ] , [ "hr" ] , [ "p", "On the third floor we were surprised to find a fashion incubator funded by Taiwan government, named T Fashion. The collective combines a hundred (!) entrepreneurs in fashion design, tailoring, accessories, silk painting, along with a few magazines (Vogue, GQ) and local fashion schools. The Textile & Fashion college from Fu Jen Catholic University booth impressed us with the showcase of their impressive 2021 graduate student show." ] , [ "img", [ "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-01.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-09.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-02.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-07.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-08.jpg" ] ] , [ "hr" ] , [ "p", "The second floor hosts dozens of tailors, most of them specialised in traditional Chinese garments (cheongsams and hanfus). Shops are very clean and typically around twenty square meter wide, some of them twice that size, a real luxury compared to Hong Kong standards. Cutting tables and industrial sewing machines are everywhere: we saw a few Brother's, many Juki's and countless Siruba's, the local Taiwanese brand." ] , [ "p", "The first floor has a hundred shops selling multicolor fabric, threads and ribbons. We were slightly disappointed there, though: despite piles of coupons often reaching up to the ceiling, fabrics were mostly synthetics with only a few suppliers specialised in Chinese or Japanese cotton, and we couldn't find high quality silk or lace." ] , [ "img", [ "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-03.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-04.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-05.jpg", "life-shopping-taipeiyongle-06.jpg" ] ] , [ "hr" ] , [ "p", "Last but not least, the district is obviously being revitalised and surrounding streets have many lovely fashion & object design stores, in a late 19th/early 20th century Japanese colonial architecture style that made our strolling a real pleasure." ] , [ "hr" ] , [ "p", "Our rating:" ] , [ "ul", [ "" , "Location — ■■■□ — Very convenient location in city centre, within walking reach from Green Line's Beiten (北門) station." , "Width of services — ■■■□ — Large offer of custom tailoring, fabrics, threads, trims and ribbons." , "Depth of goods — ■■□□ — Unfortunately we only found Chinese synthetics and cotton across most shops, bar a handful of vendors offering Japanese prints and mid-level quality Chinese lace." , "Prices — ■■■□ — Most products are unlabeled but prices are very similar to Hong Kong, ie rather cheap from an international market perspective." ] ] ] , "author": "Alex VB" }