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Daily Fashion & Runway News
Sep 10, 2011
With Wendy Williams, Angela Simmons, and Beverley Mitchell.
Feb 20, 2009
With Bebe Neuwirth, Emma Snowdon-Jones, and Fabiola Beracasa.
After designing her first label, East Wind Code, for nine years, Chinese-American designer Vivienne Tam launched her eponymous line in 1994. Though designers often struggle initially to cultivate a distinct image, Tam’s line was quickly known for its East-meets-West polish. Her clean lines, Asian prints, rich color sense, and facility with beading garnered critical success and earned her a nod from the CFDA in 1998 with a nomination for the Perry Ellis award for womenswear. It also allowed her to open boutiques from L.A. to Tokyo while placing her pieces in top stores (Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s) and museum archives (the Met, Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, and F.I.T.). In 2007, Tam launched offshoot lines in both the contemporary and higher-up markets—Vivienne Tam Red and Vivienne Tam Jade, respectively. That same year, the designer’s sensibility stamped the staff’s uniforms at the Gramercy Park Hotel restaurant, Wakiya.
“Vivienne Tam's world, beatific Buddhas, mythic dragons, fierce tigers, chubby Chinese babies, sacred lotus flowers and Chairman Mao's stern moon face decorate a vividly colored landscape. Such Asian motifs are in her blood, and printing them on clingy stretch nylon netting has made Tam one of the decade's most original and popular American fashion designers.”—Mimi Avins, Reporter The Los Angeles Times
“I've mixed the romanticism of the Orient with sensual silhouettes to create a look that is feminine, yet hard-edged.”—Vivienne Tam Style.com
Vivienne Tam