Chapter 4. Research and Analysis
4.2 A field trip with a fashion consumer
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the trickle-down theory doesn’t have any effect in our research. As Spencer explained, fashion is intrinsically imitative. And this describes exactly the situation in Taiwan, but as we have verified, it’s not about competing with each other or exposing their economic power by consuming in Zara, instead, their consumption or window-shopping in Zara responds to a wish to be in fashion, to express their own style. Through our interviewees, we have learned that they are more concerned with the designs of the clothes, rather than with the brand itself. Their interest in the brand is related to the variety of styles they find, though not with the quality of clothes, which they consider is not as good as expected from a foreign brand that has achieved global reputation. We observe that for them, the combination of clothes is more important, as it serves them to construct their own style, hence, to express their own identity. Indeed, fashion is seen in Taiwan as social phenomenon, in the sense that consumers interact with each other by expressing their own style, in order to look different from the rest, but still within the boundaries of what’s considered fashionable. And how do they know what’s fashionable? By doing the ‘fashion research’ in the stores in alleys, night markets, as well as online clothing stores and fashion magazines.
Thus, the fashion phenomenon in Taiwan is not about economic or social status, but rather about clothing styles.
4.2 A field trip with a fashion consumer
As we said above in the introduction of Chapter 4, we include a field trip with a fashion consumer, August. The location for our field trip is the Zara store of Dongqu, in eastern downtown Taipei. It is the second store Zara opened in Taiwan (24th November 2011). With two MRT stations, Dongqu is a shopping district with stylish brand names (local and foreign)
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and local designer stores, nice cafés and restaurants, apart from shopping malls, such as Sogo. The choice of this particular Zara store is due to the significance of Dongqu for Taiwanese fashion followers and consumers, and in general, a very popular place to hang out in for youngsters and adults. According to Alba, a part-time student, “numerous pricey but at the same time stylish stores are gathered in this area. When one looks for fashion, Dongqu is the first thing that comes to mind.” On the other hand, Vanessa, who enjoys checking Zara stores but does not purchase, says “in this area consumers can find cheap and pricey things at the same time.”
For our research, I have had the opportunity to spend one afternoon (on a Thursday, from 2pm to 7pm) in the Zara store in Dongqu, with a fashion consumer, August, aged between 28 and 32. She confesses she is a trends follower, partly because of her job as an interior designer, and at the same time, she extends this passion to fashion. She likes to observe what people dress, but more importantly, to ‘how’. Apart from checking retailers and little shops in the alleys of Dongqu, she also browses fashion magazines (both local and foreign) and online clothing websites, such as i-miusa.com and joyce-shop.com. Every three or six months she changes once her preferred online clothing website. The first time she visited a Zara store was in Paris. And now, she visits a Zara store three times a month. We started walking through the woman section. Indeed, she was very familiar to the items and the concept of Zara:
To ease the shopping of the consumers, Zara places items according to a recommended combination of clothes and colors. For instance, we see here pieces of basics (plain T-Shirts), and in four colors. Among them, this pair of blue trousers that suggests you to combine with any color of
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those T-shirts. Items are smartly placed so that you neither get confused nor think much about how to match.
At my question whether Zara forces consumers to dress like the suggested combinations, she explains that Zara doesn’t pretend to make them buy the whole combination, but saying that such items are convenient and beautiful to match: “No matter how, Zara will make you purchase at least one of the items exposed.”
We examine the woman section. Clothes for office ladies and every day are placed in different parts but close to each other, while clothes with ‘more daring’ styles or rather addressed for particular occasions were placed bit away from the rest. She also pointed out that every piece had only one or two sizes placed, in order to avoid giving the impression of a mass or a mess of clothes all put together. As we spot three different bags on the shelves above the clothes, she comments:
These are usually the bags that are more difficult to be sold, because they are considered to have a higher level of quality, plus the appearance looks similar to those of luxury brands. However, if you just purchase its look, you always save more money buying this rather than a luxury bag.
Then we walked downstairs, to the kids section and passing by the TRF (Trafaluc) section. Something got my attention: the mannequins in both window displays. There were three mannequins put in a row and with the same combinations of clothes. She explained:
“Such repetition of mannequins say that it’s a good combination. It’s not about exploding the combination or making a pressure on the consumer, but functioning as a reminder: this combination works really well.”
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In the kids section we found women with a physical appearance of 16 to 28 years old.
She explained that there is a very popular and common habit among female fashion consumers: “According to the usual Taiwanese woman’s physical measurements, we can perfectly fit in some of the kids’ clothes. And this happens with other brands. When we go abroad, we do check the kid sections!”
The TRF section offers a more casual collection and addressed to young women, who practice leisure activities. Here, August perceives the items to have lower prices compared to the ones found in the woman section. Therefore, this section attracts those who can’t quite afford buying in woman section. Since it attracts lower-budget women (usually high school and university students), the style here is more colorful or ‘more daring’, the pieces have more colors to choose and there are less formal clothes. She emphasizes the following point:
There are models here in TRF that are quite similar to those upstairs in woman section. Zara uses the same pattern for many models. Therefore, to make the most of that pattern, they use different fabrics, materials and colors, or adding details, so then they can make models for both TRF and woman sections at the same time. Also, the models in TRF are slightly cheaper than those in woman section.
Zara promotes a mass fashion; so we wonder what do Taiwanese women who wear Zara, feel about the “uniqueness” of their dress. August responds as followed:
It depends on how you combine with other clothes from little stores in the alleys or in the night markets. Usually, that’s what the Taiwanese woman aged 18 – 30 does. She’s aware of the fashion trends. There are lots of Taiwanese blogs about fashion that suggest multiple
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combinations and styles. We also get the inspiration from them and then we choose our own combination that suits us. We create our own style.
We continue our observation in the man section. As we saw from the formal dresses, they indeed followed a same pattern. We compared two pieces: From the outside there were no much difference (same pattern), but as we observed inside, between them we spotted different details, such as, flower lines, colors, buttons, soft or harder fabrics, pockets and cuts. “This is exactly where the value of this piece lies: the details. Details make you buy this or that piece.” However, a question arises here: What if others can’t see these details?
She responds: “It’s ‘me’ who wears this piece, it’s ‘me’ who is aware of these details, that’s enough. She explains this ‘feeling’ with the phrase (這是我爽的程度). Buying clothes should be to make oneself happy.”
Afterwards, we entered different stores in the alleys behind Zara. She says that many of them originally come from online clothing websites that later reached a considerable development, so now they decide to rent a local. “It’s always better to enter the shop and touch the clothes, rather than simply clicking on the computer.” She continues explaining:
“The clothes are mostly imported from Korea directly by the shops’ owners themselves.”
All the stores we checked were unique in style: none had the same in decoration; instead, some clothes happen to coincide. From our observation, we understand why window-shopping such stores is so popular among fashion consumers: they can buy here and there, combine with accessories, and create their own style. It’s very popular now to combine clothes from a stylish brand name, for example Zara, then something purchased in a night market and another piece from a clothing store in the alleys. The following phrase summarizes very well how the current fashion consumer is behaving: “In order to be
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fashionable, one has to be smart in combining fashion (時髦還要聰明混搭出時尚)”
(Magazine Global Views Monthly, special issue published in December 2011).
Regarding to her ‘love’ over Zara, she concludes: “No matter how, I frequently find what I like in Zara. I like this pattern, but I don’t like it with this particular fabric, it’s alright, because then I may find a similar pattern or the same one, but with the fabric I want.” For August, the main value of Zara lies on the details. Details are the reason why she loves coming to Zara; and when she can, also purchasing Zara items.
Related to the prices, she believes that although Zara is known as a retailer, prices in Zara are still high:
A pair of shoes that cost 990 NTD is seen expensive in Taiwan. On the other hand, if compared to luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Zara is not seen as a big brand. But, for the affordable pockets of the general public, Zara is indeed seen as a big brand and very popular in Taiwan.
As we read before, Zara is known to offer affordable luxury: products with a luxurious look but not expensive (高貴而不貴). However, for Taiwanese standards, the price in Zara is still considered a bit expensive. Despite this perception, and as we observe from August’
statement, it’s always cheaper to buy in Zara than a luxury brand.
The interest towards Zara started to grow in August when she first watched the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Though for her, there is no direct connection between the brand and Spain. “Zara does not highlight any Spanish-ness”. August believes that the fashion phenomenon around Zara in Taiwan may remain for long, because the variety of styles is never ending and the rapid turnover of collections attracts fashion followers all the time. We can conclude from August’s observations, that Zara is not only popular among Taiwanese
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fashion consumers because people can usually find what they like (“I like the pattern but with a different fabric. It’s alright, you can find your preferred fabric with the pattern you like!”), but mainly because, without the necessity to purchase, customers learn how to combine clothes and accessories. They know what’s the fashionable combination of the current moment (not just simply the season), in order to create their own clothing style. “Be different, but still, into fashion wave”.