In Which She Buys A Chloe Dress for $32USD.

There are days when you feel like a shopping queen. Today is one of them.

For the next twelve (well, eleven, I guess ... ) months, I'm reframing this neglected blog as Fasianista Guide to Taipei - I'll seek out great stores and boutiques, shopping districts, explore Taiwan fashion, and of course, detail my own shopping adventures.

Today, I went with one of my four friends here to the Gong Guan area off the Xindian line on the MRT. She had mentioned she was looking for shoes, and I noticed many extremely cheap shoe stores around on Roosevelt when I was walking to the music venue, The Wall, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to do some afternoon shopping.

We walked along Roosevelt, Sec. 4 toward The Wall. (I'm still figuring out geography of Taipei, meaning I'm completely ignorant of it, so bear with me). The Gong Guan area is wedged somewhere between Shi Da (National Taiwan Normal University) and Tai Da (National Taiwan University), two of the major universities in Taipei. Also nearby is NTUST (University of Science and Technology, I think). Suffice to say that many shops and stores around the area cater to the thrifty student - cheap, cheap, cheap.

The cheap shoe stores seem to price shoes at around 390NT (roughly 12USD). Flats, for example, usually do not exceed 390NT; sometimes heels will be 490NT. Boots are a bit more expensive, but I haven't really looked at those yet, since it is still 90 degrees here. The stores around Gong Guan brought it down a level - there were a few stores that priced flats at 200NT. At that price, you can buy 4 pairs easily and not feel bad about wearing them to pieces. The main thing is to find shoes that are comfortable, of course. Unfortunately, whether flats are comfortable can be difficult to determine because you can't really tell whether they provide enough support until you walk a bit of ways in them. But then again, at 200NT ... it is usually worth the risk.
Shoes here, like the clothes, which I will expound upon later, reflect trendy designs, but the style in Asia is particularly inclined towards bling, flowers, ruffles, etc. Pretty much anything that can be expounded upon is expounded upon. But in shoe stores, there is usually an overwhelming amount of shoes of all sorts of different styles, so you must be prepared to use your eyes a lot. Taiwanese salespeople are usually extremely helpful and eager to assist, but oftentimes for me, more used to the more laid back (lazy? self-involved?) Western shop people, this can be read as pushy. And they do really want to you to buy things from them. Be prepared to assert "no" if you don't want something, otherwise they will assume that you do and if you're anything like me, you'll have a pile of 10 pairs of shoes before you know it.

The first shoe store we stopped by was a rousing success - I bought two pairs of annoyingly trendy "loafer" shoes - 390NT each, so less than 25USD total. But the other thing about Taipei is that the sheer number of shoe stores means that you do not have to commit to something you 90% like. Within two blocks, there is likely 5-6 more stores with shoes that have a slight variance you 90% like, which means hopefully, in one of them, you'll find shoes that you 100% like, or even love.

The brilliance of shopping at these crazy cheap prices is that happiness potential is extremely high. Meaning, the joy you derive from your purchase can be exponentially proportional to the money you spent on your purchase.

The truth was that we were searching for a coffee shop with wifi so we could get some work done. Amazingly, there was nothing along this stretch of Roosevelt, but we did manage to pop into a few more stores.

This was one of my favorite pieces - 80s AND polka dots? But it was made of some horrible polyester, which was an immediate no.

In Taipei (and Taiwan in general), it is extremely easy to buy trendy and buy cheap, as I've already stated. But to find a store with truly unique style or fashion is harder than you think. And these places usually are significantly pricier.

This one, which looks like, 70 Roosevelt (Section 4), is my favorite and a real find. Of course, that means it housed prices that were extremely high within the context of the other stores. However, what made this store great was its selection. The clothes looked like they were mostly from Korea and/or Japan, and they were certainly one of a kind. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me try on the tunic/dress that I was enamored with. I'm not sure if that was a store policy, or if it was because the piece was on sale - note: many stores in Taiwan will not let you try on sale items - either way, I decided against it. I have, however, been thinking about it a lot, so I may have to go back and get it, or at least look at it again.

We eventually did find a cafe, though we couldn't get onto the internet, and afterwards, we decided to walk back to the Guting MRT stop, right where I live and where my friend Kim could catch a bus back to her apartment. I took us up Shi Da Road, which runs through the Shi Da night market (and Shi Da). The Shi Da night market is night market; there are standing stores but it largely consists of stalls and vendors. On Shi Da Road, though, it's mostly convenience stores, bakeries, and noodle stands. We noticed one small boutique, and after staring in its window, we decided to pop in.

And it's fortunate that we did! While a lot of the things in the store were not that interesting to me, there were a few gems. I found a fantastic silk dress with beautiful draping, a wonderful red and white print, and a Chloe label (not sure how much I believe that), which could be dressed up or dressed down. The price tag was 3980NT (~130USD), but hoping that I could get it knocked down to about 3000NT, I asked if it was on sale. The store owner agreed to give me a discount, and surprisingly knocked it down to 1000NT (~32USD). DONE DEAL. We were invited to some Ministry of Foreign Affairs 10/10 celebration, and I was contemplating looking for a new outfit - found. The lady was smart to give me a deal, because I will certainly be revisiting that store in the future, hoping to scrounge up something equally wonderful and unique.

On that high, we finished walking up Shi Da Road, stopping in a bakery to buy bread (coconut raisin thick toast ... I need to find someone else to eat it otherwise FAT FAT FAT ME). We also walked past a hat vendor.

As this mannequin shows, fedoras (and headwear) has hit Taiwan in full force. This mannequin is from the Gong Guan area. Back in the Shi Da area, this hat stand was really just a table, next to tons of parked motorcycle, with a huge cardboard box full of hats. The woman was just setting up when we approached her, and the sign read 190NT (~8USD) per hat. That's enough to entice me to stop, especially because I've been looking for a boater. After I tried on a couple of hats, the woman said she would sell me the hat for 150NT. I ended up getting the boater and a fedora for 300NT (~10USD).

And that was a full day's worth of shopping: two pairs of shoes, two hats, and a dress! All for less than 70USD.