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Taipei Fashion Week Embraces Sustainable Design for 2025
Taiwan's fashion scene is taking a bold step toward sustainability as Taipei Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2025 kicks off, uniting six designers under a common mission: "To go from zero, back to zero."
"The key point is to show that Taiwan hopes to share the responsibility of global citizenship through fashion," said deputy culture minister Sue Wang. “’Endless’ represents the idea of limitless fashion, meaning that we hope fashion can also be a cycle. Fashion should not be a burden on the planet but rather everyone involved in the process, those who consume fashion, should also take part in sharing responsibility for the Earth."
The push for sustainability comes in response to the growing problem of fast fashion, which has dominated the global market due to its affordability but poses environmental challenges. In Taiwan, more than 80,000 tons of clothing are discarded annually, with 34,000 tons ending up in incinerators—a pile nearly as high as Mount Everest.
"I think [I throw a lot of clothes away]," one Taipei resident admitted. "I don’t even know when I’ll next throw them away, maybe in two weeks, maybe a month. I’m not sure."
Another fashion-conscious consumer, however, said they take a more measured approach. “The average wardrobe life of my clothes, I would say maybe three to seven years," they said. "I try to mix and match, right? And sometimes I think I'm very careful with what I add into my collection. So I don't throw them away easily."
In response to these waste concerns, designers at Taipei Fashion Week are focusing on using recycled materials. "This time, we also used industrial waste fabric and recycled clothing to create new fabric," designer Claudia Wang said. "It’s a fascinating process transforming finished products back into raw material."
Despite these efforts, some designers acknowledge the challenges of making sustainable fashion mainstream. "The cost of recycled materials is quite high, so it may take some time to push it for mass production," designer Pan Yi-liang explained. "Small-batch production doesn’t seem to be a major issue but for mass production I think pricing could be a challenge."
Still, optimism remains. "I think the shift from custom-made [clothes] to fast fashion to is slowly transitioning back again," Claudia Wang said. "There is a growing value in a single piece of clothing with the hope of owning clothing like a collection."
Taipei Fashion Week continues through March 30, featuring more runway shows and fashion forums that emphasize a circular approach to fashion's future.
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