From Taipei to London

Four Taiwanese Designers in Conversation

Written by: Lucy Dover (@luce_dover_)

Most LFW presentations want your attention. This one wanted your senses. At the ICA, From Taipei to London transformed stark white walls into something closer to a memory: florals thick with scent, carefully plated food, and garments that carried the weight of both tradition and invention. Four Taiwanese designers: APUJAN, INFDARK, JENN LEE, and RAY CHU, each told stories that stretched between Taipei and London, between the island they came from and the global stage they now stand on. Even the dishes from BAO London felt like part of the collections, extending fabric into flavour, memory into taste; carefully curated to pair with a designer.

To understand why this mattered, you need to understand Taiwan. The island has lived under the shadow of occupation, dictatorship, and constant threats of erasure, but its culture has always found ways to resist through reinvention. Fashion is just the latest expression of that resilience. Taiwanese designers move fluidly between past and future, treating heritage not as a static relic but as raw material for something new. In a city like London, which is also a place built on empire, migration, and cultural collisions, the resonance of that history is impossible to miss.

From Taipei to London wasn’t a neutral showroom. It was Taiwan asserting itself in an industry that often flattens difference. Here, difference was the point: garments that referenced childhood rituals, gothic elements turned into symbols of care, fabrics spun from tea leaves and oyster shells. Together, they told a story about what it means to create under pressure, to turn fragility into strength, and to insist on being seen.

INFDARK

For INFDARK, whose collection drew heavily from cultural rituals, fashion is a tool of storytelling. One standout piece, Banquet, references traditional Taiwanese feasts that mark both joyful and sorrowful occasions. “The most important thing is they are all inspired by Taiwanese culture,” the designer explained. “We’re trying to bring the retro twisted with modern taste, and present the world with something that carries culturistic elements and story behind it. It’s like a soft empower to send out a message.”

Speaking on the wider industry, INFDARK was clear-eyed: “Fashion has lost meaning because trends are kidnapped by aesthetics. People are still buying the same looks, the same colours, the same styles from past seasons. That kills creativity. Fashion should bring freshness, diversity, newness. I hope one day we can break through the boundaries and everybody be free again.”

APUJAN

APUJAN’s contribution showcased the label’s signature knitwear and chiffon, rooted in literature and fantasy. “Our collections are always inspired by fairy tales: one season Peter Pan, another Alice in Wonderland, Asian kaiju legends,” he said. “We develop different kinds of textiles by ourselves, so the fabric becomes part of the storytelling.”

He is also keenly aware of the need for cultural fluency in fashion. “We live in a global village,” he expressed. “There is too much information now, so we need to understand different cultures more, otherwise we don’t know how to communicate.” His designs reflect that philosophy, weaving together traditional Asian colours and motifs with the shapes of Western tailoring, creating garments that move across borders while still carrying their roots.

JENN LEE

Jenn Lee approached the showcase as a kind of autobiography, a decade of her life told through clothes. The earliest piece she selected came from a time when she was living in Berlin. A visit to a concentration camp left her shaken, and she poured that grief and rage directly into her designs. “The little beads represent the body,” she explained, “also the bleeding I felt at that time. The work was very direct, very dark.”

Years later, her collections softened, shaped by the birth of her son. “I had so much love I wanted to share,” she said, pointing to flowing lines and multi-functional details that allowed the garments to adapt to different bodies and lives. For her, functionality itself became a form of care.

Her latest work, however, doesn’t abandon the gothic thread that has run through her career. Instead it reframes it. Inspired by her son’s fascination with horror characters and “weirdos,” she wanted to take what might seem frightening and turn it into something protective. “It’s not about terrifying,” she said. “It’s about cherishing difference.”

RAY CHU

Ray Chu’s vision leaned toward the future, though always grounded in Taiwanese life. His eco-friendly silhouettes included fabric made from recycled oyster shells and tea leaves: a nod both to Taiwan’s tea culture and Britain’s afternoon tea tradition. “Each corner in Taiwan has a tea shop,” he said. “Through showcasing this collection, we thought that could be something eye-catching and something British people could get immediately.”

One standout look, the Crinum lily gown, was covered in 3D-printed flowers. The design came from a moment of chance: Chu discovered the unusual bloom while jogging through a park. “It felt different from lilies or roses,” he explained. “It was unique, and I wanted to stand out with something not already seen.” That kind of attention to the overlooked is central to his practice.

Diversity sits at the heart of his practice. “I’m part of the LGBTQ+ community, and growing up in Taiwan wasn’t always easy. For me, fashion is about everyone being included. On my runways, you’ll see different models, because everyone is important.”

WHY IT MATTERS:

What stayed with me long after leaving the ICA wasn’t just the clothes but the worlds these designers carry with them. Each spoke about their own idea of Sanxtuary, and those answers felt like an extension of their collections. For INFDARK, safety was found at home with a PS5, novels and manga: ironically, the same space where nostalgia and pop culture fuel their designs. APUJAN’s Sanxtuary was quieter, built on time alone with books and fairy tales that continue to shape his fabric stories. For Jenn Lee, her Sanxtuary was not a distant dream but her life now, stitched through with the contradictions of motherhood, love, and gothic sensibility. And for Ray Chu, it was a beach on a small Thai island, a place of stillness and belonging that echoes his commitment to inclusion.

Together, these visions mirrored what From Taipei to London offered: not a neutral display, but a set of safe spaces made visible through fabric, flavour, memory and ritual. The work carried with it the persistence of an island that has always had to assert itself, never taking visibility for granted. In a fashion week that so often rewards spectacle, Taiwan’s designers showed something much rarer: clothes as sanctuaries and stories that carry both history and possibility.