Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 20, 2015
By: Dana Ter  /  Staff Reporter

A designer hollers “lunch time” as models — male, female, toddlers and

Baunay Watan, the organizer of the yearly Suraw Atayal Fashion Show, poses for a picture at a press conference in Taipei earlier this month. Photo: Dana Ter, Taipei Times

middle-aged — scamper to folding tables, grab a lunch box and plop themselves on the grass. A group of people next to the makeshift catwalk are trying to rearrange a row of bamboo plants brought down from the mountains of Miaoli County. Next to them, a few male models are hanging pieces of Styrofoam cut to resemble clouds over a sign for the Suraw Atayal Fashion Show (森林之心色舞繞泰雅服裝秀), which takes place on Saturday in the county’s Shei-Pa National Park (雪霸國家公園).

A few bamboo plants and Styrofoam clouds smack in the middle of Taipei did not exactly evoke a sense of the thundering mountains and lush greenery that Taian Township (泰安) in Miaoli County, home to the Atayal tribe, is known for. In fact, the entire affair feels more like an informal gathering of friends than preparation for a press conference and fashion show.

Yet I was also grateful for the fact that there weren’t hordes of crazed reporters and fans clawing at each like you see every year at New York Fashion Week.     [FULL  STORY]