Nana: Fashion has infinite possibilities, and new power is born from it. As a carrier of culture and times, fashion encompasses everything. From trendy to traditional culture, from celebrities, idols to everyone’s daily life, and from West to East, it is our discourse, our power, our time. Through Asian Voice, we hope to spread the local Asian fashion culture to the world by moving cross languages and borders.
In this issue, we welcome UNDER PEACE, a streetwear brand from Taiwan. Established in 2006, UNDER PEACE was founded with a passion for street culture and built from a small basement. It is committed to creating not just cloth, but to interpreting UNDER PEACE’s beliefs through the vehicle of clothing, and encouraging everyone to live for their ideals just like the slogan it sticks to, “CHOOSE YOUR FAITH.” In the recent collection, It has shown its concern for the environment and sustainability. It is trying its best to express and practice environmental protection as a fashion brand.
Nana: What is the story behind UNDER PEACE such as the concepts, messages and the themes it has?
Chris: We hope to find a group of like-minded people along the way, whether they like our products or agree with the concept we present every season, CHOOSE YOUR FAITH is the SLOGAN of our brand since we want to encourage everyone to choose what you believe in, to protect and fight for their ideals and dreams.
We love street culture, and we also love the simple and quality attitude of life. We try to blend them and create seasonal pieces.
Nana: Why did you initially create the brand and name it “UNDER PEACE”?
Chris: UNDER PEACE was founded in 2006. In the early days, we operated as a select store. At that time, there are no regular ways for most of the foreign streetwear brands to sell in Taiwan. But there was still a group in Taiwan that loved streetwear. We seized that opportunity and picked up some nice streetwear products and tried to sell.
It was not until 2009 that we started to make attempts to launch our own products, and then we transformed into a streetwear brand to start our seasonal collections.
We always hope that there will be no disputes and hatred between people, but to maintain the friendship, so we chose the word PEACE as the brand name. Because we started our first store from the basement, and because the culture we like is the subculture and underground culture which is not in the mainstream market, so we decided on the word UNDER and PEACE as our brand name.
Nana: How do you describe the style of UNDER PEACE in three words?
Chris: Comfort, life, street fashion.
Nana: What is your impression about current fashion in Taiwan?
Chris: There are a lot of diverse brands and styles in Taiwan now. We will stick to what we want and continue to express our brand culture to move forward to a better self.
Nana: How do you come up and decide on the themes for new collections? If it’s possible could you share a little bit about your next collection?
Chris: In recent years, most of the themes are from the situations we encountered in our life, and we find some directions and start to extend them. For example, we have made a series of items that are not only suitable to be worn outside, but also very stylish for use at home because of the sudden outbreak of COVID-19. Or maybe it was because we started to go outdoors on vacation and often went to the deep mountains of Taiwan, where we found the beauty of nature and forests, and we need to protect them.
So we hope to slowly make changes little by little to be sustainable as possible, not only for ourselves but also to encourage our customers and everyone who likes us.
The new theme of the latest season 2023 is also in response to COVID-19 since it’s going to the end and traveling has become one of the most exciting things for everyone. We will launch functional products suitable for outdoor travel, focusing on lightweight and breathability, please please look forward to it!
Nana: UNDER PEACE has expressed its concern for environmental issues in the recent collections. What made you decide to do this theme and how do you think about sustainable fashion?
Chris: In fact, not only us, but also various industries around the world have started to actively face this issue. As a member of the fashion industry, we ourselves are also deeply aware of the problems caused by overproduction. Therefore, how to reduce the damage has become the key direction of our sustainable concerns.
I am also looking forward to seeing more integration and evolution of environmental protection and fashion in the future.
Nana: Can you tell us about some of the most challenging experiences you have had during the process of building your brand?
Chris: Every day since we started our brand has been a challenge. Starting a business is a challenge in itself, and there are too many aspects to take care of, and almost all of them are necessary, such as brand style, product quality, production delivery, financial flow, customer management, community management, event planning, internal personnel, etc.
Over the past ten years, there have been too many problems in each area, and we are now facing the challenge of how to make more people know us and like us.
Nana: Do you have any advice for our readers who are seeking to find a way to build a brand just like “UNDER PEACE”?
Chris: Enthusiasm and the courage to face failure and make mistakes are a must for any successful brand and business. When you encounter a failure, you need to have strong positive thinking on how to correct and optimize it.
Also, you must know where the consumers are. Consumers are one of the most crucial reasons to decide whether a brand can continue to operate in the future.
When you encounter a failure, you need to have strong positive thinking on how to correct and optimize it.
