Vivienne Tam's tale of two cities: from Hong Kong girl to New York success story
Hong Kong's most iconic design export, Vivienne Tam tells Jing Zhang about bridging the East-West fashion divide, and why she had to move to New York to make it in her hometown
She's the most famous fashion designer to have come out of Hong Kong, and a long-time champion of "China chic", but Vivienne Tam says she barely noticed the 20th anniversary of her eponymous label last year.
The pioneer of the East-meets-West fashion philosophy had been preoccupied with her numerous projects, including opening a store at PMQ, in Central, that displayed a large statue of her famously cute Opera Girl.
"I didn't realise it had been 20 years," Tam says, as the New York sunshine pours onto her face through the windows of the Jean-Georges restaurant, in the Trump Hotel overlooking Central Park.
"There's so much going on in life, and it's all going so fast. Every season is still kind of like the beginning because I'm constantly having to have new ideas. But I'm doing what I love."
Tam is sporting her signature red lipstick, her middle-parted glossy black hair flowing loose. She's wearing a red-patterned shift dress (one of her own designs) and chunky 1970s-style heels.
It's not the first time I've met Tam. Over the past year, we've had dinner together at a mutual friend's house in Pok Fu Lam and cooed over the dresses at the inaugural fundraising gala dinner by amfAR, the Foundation for Aids Research, at Shaw Studios, in Clear Water Bay. She showed me around her New York studio (Tam started her career in the Big Apple), and - at ABC Kitchen, also part of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's stable - she gave me tips for finding the best flea markets in the city.
Tam doesn't have the cold, detached exterior we have come to expect from fashion designers. Instead, she's smiley and a little bit dreamy, but she talks fast and with enthusiasm. I've heard her described as being "pure" and, after meeting her, I can understand why.
