A Student’s Personal Story: Exploring 1950s–1960s Taiwanese Fashion Through Multimedia Project

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By Tajinder Kaur, Marketing student

Cosmetic Management student Shih (Bella) presented her multimedia project, Fashion History class taught by Professor Vladimira Steffek, titled Family Fashion Story. The project was an artistic exploration of her grandmother’s experiences as a fashion entrepreneur in Taiwan during the 1950s to 1970s. The project combined personal storytelling, historical research, and visual media to capture how one woman’s creativity reflected the evolution of fashion and culture in mid-20th-century Taiwan.

Bella's work centered around an intimate interview with her grandmother, who founded her own ready-to-wear factory in 1975, a time when Taiwan was transitioning from tailor-made garments to mass production. Before opening her factory, her grandmother operated a small tailor shop, designing dresses inspired by European magazines and adapting them to the tastes of Taiwanese women of the era.

The interview offered rare insight into how global influences and local craftsmanship intertwined during Taiwan’s fashion boom. Bella discovered that her grandmother’s loose-sleeved, belted dresses mirrored global trends of the 1970s, while also maintaining elements of traditional femininity. “Through this project and Grandma’s story,” Shin reflected, “I realized that a single garment can carry such extensive cultural history. It is a memory, an identity, and a symbol of feminine power.”

In addition to the personal narrative, Bella project connected these memories to broader fashion movements. The 1960s and 1970s marked pivotal decades in Taiwan’s fashion evolution; media such as magazines and television introduced Western styles like miniskirts, hippie patterns, and bell-bottoms, which began challenging conservative social norms. The establishment of Taiwan’s first professional fashion design program in 1961 and the opening of Taipei’s first department store in 1965 further accelerated the nation’s shift toward modern fashion consumption.

Bella's Family Fashion Story bridges this historical context with her grandmother’s lived experience, offering a meaningful reflection on how fashion serves as both a personal and cultural archive. Her multimedia approach not only celebrated a family legacy but also illuminated the deeper narrative of Taiwan’s creative and economic transformation.

What better way to study the global evolution of fashion than by uncovering the personal stories woven into its history.

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