Vivienne Tam
Fashion designer Vivienne Tam, known for her signature east-meets-west style, rose from more than humble beginnings in Guangzhou and Hong Kong to become one of the most famous Chinese designers in the world. She talks to Hana R. Alberts about sewing with remnants, cajoling reluctant factory managers and taking Mao’s name in vain.
After 1949, communism was going to be a problem. My parents wanted to leave [China], but they left me behind in Guangzhou. They had to get me out through Macau, because the border to Hong Kong was closed. They pretended our close friends were my parents because they were Macau residents.
I was smuggled out. My mother would always talk about how she was waiting for me on the other side. I was only three. She remembers that the immigration person took a lot of time. They would ask, “Who are your parents?” I was trained to answer.
My grandparents dressed me like a boy. I had a crew cut and Peter Pan-collar dresses, because they wanted me to be a boy even though I had brothers already. A lot of Chinese families still prefer boys.
My mother always made her own cheongsams, and during Chinese New Year she would make our clothes. We would go to the flea markets and get leftover fabric from the factories, and we would make patchwork items for my sisters and brothers. That’s how I learned to make clothes. It was a necessity.
She taught us to make our own things, to cook and to pick out vegetables from the markets. I learned from her that you have to feel with your hands. You have to pick the swimming fish out of the tank for dinner.
We had very limited resources when we had no money, but then you become more creative because of those limitations.
