LET'S GET LOST(TAIWAN SPECIAL) - 0416 X 1024

My story with 0416 X 1024 started with my first Taipei trip for visiting my friends who met in London in 2008. They had a store in the Red House in Ximen and there was a some area for new brands to sell their own designs. The only brand attracted me was 0146 X 1024’s screen printed t-shirt with those fun illustrations and colourful background. Since then I visit their store every time I travel to Taiwan and always brought some cute t-shirt back to Hong Kong with me when my trip was over. I always wanted to introduce their store on my blog but I didn’t think I was ready so I didn’t contact their staffs in my previous visit in 2009 and 2010. They opened a flagship store in Zhongshan area last year and it’s such a big store with a gallery space. I came across it last summer and I really like it so I think I am ready to make this report during my Taipei trip this summer. You may think it’s a bit boring to share a store only selling t-shirts, ceramics and some accessories but they have more then 14000 followers on facebook which can show their popularity directly. The brand 0416 X 1024 stands for the birthday of 2 founders and the "X" means their relationship and collaboration (there are few brands launching in store beside the 0416 and 1024 brand)

  

The brand concept is very simple, LOVE. We can have a better life with love and you can read it through their illustrations and even the little character welcoming you at the entry. It’s a house liked character and he got heartbeat like us. You will see the ceramic designs by Mujing Shan (1024) once you walk in to the store and they are still something on my to-get list every time I visited (but my mum always throws my decorations so I still don’t own any). To call them ceramics is not very suitable since all the pieces are made of cement. Three words are enough to describe the reason I like them - Clean Cut, Minimal and Raw. My favourite pieces are the the lamps. The little house with a door shape hole always lead me to peep inside and check how the light works. The latest work is the clock.

I don't think I have to introduce the t-shirts designed by an other founder, 0416. There are always little love messages in the t-shirts and my recent favourite is "Mr. Right". I got one called "Dreams come true" to celebrate my dreams came true last year. "Who could see my sadness?" is also one of my favourite in my closet too! To share their love to a wilder market, 0416 developed some special piece with different shapes and materials like round shape t-shirts and patchworked denim shirts.

Besides those screen printed t-shirts, my favourite pieces in the store are the coin bags which made by a Taiwan local artist,姬 (sounds Gi in English) , each of them is hand stitched so every one is different. The funny treat of the collection is you can make some sounds when pressing it. I keep collecting those funny face elfs every time I visit Taipei. You can also see some big creations in the store as well!

My favourite part of the store is the fitting room. The team believes a house in a house means toleration. The feeling I have when bing in the fitting room is like staying in my secret place when I was 6.

As I mentioned before there is a gallery space for exhibitions and they are having a painting exhibition of 0416 inhouse designer. The exhibition is about a little girl who live with love and the great things happen on her when she leave home for her daily life. The other part of the exhibition is about the relationship between her cat and her and how they sneak into each other heart. Actually you can play hide and seek with the painting all over the store since you will find them almost everywhere if you open your eyes when shopping.

I think part of the reason of 0416 X 1024 being my favourite store is their staff members. They are just super friendly and helpful! My visit last year was really bad since it started raining when I arrived the store (the main point is my friend and I didn't have our umbrella with us). Their staff borrowed her own umbrella to us and leaded us back to the tube station after my shopping which won my "best experience award" forever. It's great for branding building if you have the staffs having the same vision with you. I feel their t-shirt's love message directly through the action their staff did for me. It's just so touching!

To know more about 0416 X 1024, please visit their website

Flagship Store address: No.18, Ln. 20, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Taipei City 104, Taiwan

*Feel the love yourself and visit their store, perhaps you will find more than I found*