2020 Fashion in Taipei Gold Prize, Cotton USA Special Prize
2021 VOGUE Fashion's Night Out
2022 Taipei Fashion Week
Founder Xia Xiaoqin JEAN HSIA created her own brand "AISH" in 2020, focusing on high-end handmade uniforms, using fabrics imported from Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, and hand-stitching suit jackets, suit vests and other series to create a unique handmade charm. Garments feature unique details, great tailoring, and incorporate the spirit of tradition and handicraft. Be unique. Be different.
Interview -
I lived with my grandmother from a young age and learned to sew at six. These were very happy memories for me. I came from a low-income family background, and my grandmother who loved me the most, wanted her granddaughter to get to doll up and look pretty,. So she took my parents’ clothes apart and reworked the pieces into dresses for her favourite little girl. She often worked in the fields in the day in a straw hat, and at night, she made dresses for her granddaughter.
I worked for 10 years in the fashion industry, surrounded by many amazing women like her—young women, working women, career women and mothers alike. We wore multiple hats, giving our best effort to the ones we love. It’s only right for me to show the spirit my grandmother held through my fashion design. This part of my memory helped me find a new direction when lost. That was when I began building my brand, continuing the fearless spirit held by my grandmother through fashion design, and making my dreams come true along the way.
How did you learn your skills?
I ran a fashion boutique for 10 years and returned to Shih Chien University in 2018 to study brand operations and fashion design.
Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?
I learned needlework and sewing from my grandmother from a young age and was heavily influenced by this experience. It’s been 15 years since I founded HSIA SELECT. As I grew increasingly lost in a sea of fast fashion, I began to design clothing when I was thinking about how to bring products of better quality to customers. I founded the brand AISH in 2020 and won the gold award in August. I went from fashion boutique owner to fashion designer. Rather than a change in identity, it was much more of a defining moment for my career goals.
My AISH brand was founded in 2020 with a focus on high-end handmade tailored clothing. Using select textiles imported from Italy, Japan and the UK, blazers, suit vests and other clothing items are sewn by hand one stitch at a time for a unique one-of-a-kind handcrafted look.
A is for Artist — Every woman can become her own artist.
I is for Impressive — A low-key refined look makes a lasting impression.
S is for Strong — A fearless spirit of determination.
H is for Hanker — A doer who pursues her dreams.
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
The most important thing about fashion design is to communicate the idea and story behind the brand. It’s like being in conversation with the person wearing the clothing. Every act of creation comes from a story deeply embedded within the hearts of designers. As for the most challenging thing about running a brand, aside from designing beautiful clothing and assisting customers with selecting the most suitable pieces, more importantly, the brand value and spirit must be passed on.
Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?
My inspiration comes from my life experiences and the experiences of others around me. Every story is a source of inspiration for my designs. The designs of AISH come from deep nostalgia and emotional bonds. Artistic creation is only possible if you have a story. Fashion design is a medium for storytelling and belief.
My life experiences comprise the places I’ve been, things I’ve seen and events I’ve experienced. There’s laughter and also tears and hard work. I translate these memories and stories into physical lines and colours in my design drafts, which are then presented in sewing. For artistic creation to be lasting, it must have a story.
.JPG "fashion by taiwan designer jean hsia of aish embroidery")
Do you have a favourite look in this collection?
I like them all. The knitting series from my collaboration with Granny Lu holds tremendous significance. For an entire month, we worked day and night on the complex and cumbersome details of the hand embroidery in the knit pieces.
Where can readers purchase your designs?
Official website: www.hsia-select.com
Pinkoi: https://www.pinkoi.com/store/aishofficial
Shop: No. 55, Siping Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei City
What's next for you as a designer and your brand?
I’m going to work on running the brand well. Aside from designing beautiful clothing and assisting customers with selecting the most suitable pieces, more importantly, I’d like to work on brand value and spirit communication. In terms of what a brand represents, aside from defining it yourself, the most important is what customers think of the brand.
For a brand to be sustainable, it’s necessary to diversify your learning and constantly enrich your knowledge.
In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?
Love yourself and work hard in pursuing your dreams.
A is for Artist — Every woman can become her own artist.
I is for Impressive — A low-key refined look makes a lasting impression.
S is for Strong — A fearless spirit of determination.
H is for Hanker — A doer who pursues her dreams.
Links -
How did you learn your skills?
I ran a fashion boutique for 10 years and returned to Shih Chien University in 2018 to study brand operations and fashion design.
Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?
I learned needlework and sewing from my grandmother from a young age and was heavily influenced by this experience. It’s been 15 years since I founded HSIA SELECT. As I grew increasingly lost in a sea of fast fashion, I began to design clothing when I was thinking about how to bring products of better quality to customers. I founded the brand AISH in 2020 and won the gold award in August. I went from fashion boutique owner to fashion designer. Rather than a change in identity, it was much more of a defining moment for my career goals.
A is for Artist — Every woman can become her own artist.
I is for Impressive — A low-key refined look makes a lasting impression.
S is for Strong — A fearless spirit of determination.
H is for Hanker — A doer who pursues her dreams.
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
The most important thing about fashion design is to communicate the idea and story behind the brand. It’s like being in conversation with the person wearing the clothing. Every act of creation comes from a story deeply embedded within the hearts of designers. As for the most challenging thing about running a brand, aside from designing beautiful clothing and assisting customers with selecting the most suitable pieces, more importantly, the brand value and spirit must be passed on.
In terms of what the brand represents, aside from defining it yourself, the most important is what customers think of the brand. You must have the right operation ideas for the brand to be sustainable. AISH is a very new brand and is only at a starting point right now. It still has a long way to go in terms of facing future markets. These are the areas that I’m still working on. To sustain a brand, the only way forward is to diversify your learning and constantly enrich your knowledge.
Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?
My inspiration comes from my life experiences and the experiences of others around me. Every story is a source of inspiration for my designs. The designs of AISH come from deep nostalgia and emotional bonds. Artistic creation is only possible if you have a story. Fashion design is a medium for storytelling and belief.
My grandmother is my muse. From deep blue and light green to warm orange and
back to deep blue, these colours represent a process of losing myself before reawakening again. They represent an exploration of my process of finding myself again and later evolved to become the four brand colours of AISH.
Readers would love to know more about the current collection you showed at Vancouver Fashion Week.
The theme of AW22 is legacy, a story of how to transform the wisdom we inherited from our ancestors and those vanishing beauties into new crafts of our own. People can have a new appreciation of the symbolized meaning of texture and further understand the significance of cherishing and legacy. The collection blends knitting into the design and searches for inspirations from previous collections. There is a deconstructed signature blazer and combined with recycled jeans, fully utilizing waste materials to realize sustainability. All these different handmade recycled knitting works have a total transformation. My brand carries out the aesthetic idea of everything coexisting harmoniously and expressing its nature. I strongly believe that nature and origin are best for all human beings.
back to deep blue, these colours represent a process of losing myself before reawakening again. They represent an exploration of my process of finding myself again and later evolved to become the four brand colours of AISH.
Readers would love to know more about the current collection you showed at Vancouver Fashion Week.
The theme of AW22 is legacy, a story of how to transform the wisdom we inherited from our ancestors and those vanishing beauties into new crafts of our own. People can have a new appreciation of the symbolized meaning of texture and further understand the significance of cherishing and legacy. The collection blends knitting into the design and searches for inspirations from previous collections. There is a deconstructed signature blazer and combined with recycled jeans, fully utilizing waste materials to realize sustainability. All these different handmade recycled knitting works have a total transformation. My brand carries out the aesthetic idea of everything coexisting harmoniously and expressing its nature. I strongly believe that nature and origin are best for all human beings.
- A tribute to weaver Granny Lu - I worked with weaving expert Granny Lu from Shih Chien University this time. Granny Lu is a highly renowned weaving practitioner in the fashion industry. Her meticulous weaving skills picked up from a combination of self-study and training at Tokyo Design Academy, she has always been a frontrunner in weaving within the industry. A seamless integration of Granny Lu’s weaving and designer wear, the collection features a mixture of knit and design. Both my grandmother and mother knew how to sew, and I grew up wearing the knit sweaters my mother made from a young age, which was particularly special for me. This element forms one part of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up the entire collection.
- Ideas about heritage and renewal inspired by the Seqalu series - This collection was inspired by the weaving craft of the Paiwan people featured in the drama series Seqalu: Formosa 1867. I was very interested in the clothing featured. By thinking about how to recover this forgotten time in history and sharing these moving life stories and individuals, I hope these living traces will inspire people to explore the diverse cultures of Taiwan and discover more stories belonging to this island. Jean Hsia confessed she has always been a fan of Paiwan princess and artist Wu Yu-ling, whose work Entangled (纏繞) inspired her design this time. Wisdom passed down from ancestors flows through bloodstreams, finding continuity and self-reflection amid constant entanglements.
.JPG "fashion by taiwan designer jean hsia of aish embroidery")
I like them all. The knitting series from my collaboration with Granny Lu holds tremendous significance. For an entire month, we worked day and night on the complex and cumbersome details of the hand embroidery in the knit pieces.
Where can readers purchase your designs?
Official website: www.hsia-select.com
Pinkoi: https://www.pinkoi.com/store/aishofficial
Shop: No. 55, Siping Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei City
What's next for you as a designer and your brand?
I’m going to work on running the brand well. Aside from designing beautiful clothing and assisting customers with selecting the most suitable pieces, more importantly, I’d like to work on brand value and spirit communication. In terms of what a brand represents, aside from defining it yourself, the most important is what customers think of the brand.
For a brand to be sustainable, it’s necessary to diversify your learning and constantly enrich your knowledge.
In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?
Love yourself and work hard in pursuing your dreams.
A is for Artist — Every woman can become her own artist.
I is for Impressive — A low-key refined look makes a lasting impression.
S is for Strong — A fearless spirit of determination.
H is for Hanker — A doer who pursues her dreams.
Links -
- Website - www.hsia-select.com
- Facebook - www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064045212067
- Instagram @a_i_s_h__official
- Youtube - www.youtube.com/@bellahsia2824
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