11/6/11
Many artists claim to blend Eastern
and Western styles, but few have done it better than
Tam.
Her China-infused work has graced the
likes of Julia Roberts, Beyonce and Madonna, and last year Forbes magazine named
her among the 25 Top Chinese-Americans in Business.
Looking back at the start of her
career in the early 1980s -- when she roamed Manhattan selling
garments directly out of a bag -- she said it was tough convincing
US fashion houses to believe in her Chinese talents.
"When I first arrived in America,
people thought there were no Chinese designers. You looked around
and only saw American and European brands," Tam told
AFP.
"They thought you wanted to sell
cheap T-shirts, cheap things. I said 'no'."
She set out to "change how people
looked at China" and remind them of her homeland's historic
brilliance in design and craftsmanship.
"Changing perspectives, people's
minds, is hard -- it takes time but it can be done," said Tam,
wearing a lace dress, a quilted coat and black suede
shoes.
"I really wanted to change how people
looked at China, to show that China is not only a manufacturer,
that we too have designers... I had to prove that what was made in
China was good."
Her determination paid off. Today her
shops can be found in many major cities around the world and her
East-meets-West style -- featuring motifs such as fat-faced
Chairman Maos and lotus flowers -- has broken into the
mainstream.
Pieces of her work can be found in
the archives of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London.
Tam's autumn 2011 collection is
dappled with cascading sleeves, pagoda-shaped shoulder pads, high
collars and embroidered dragons, themes the designer borrowed from
ancient Chinese Kun opera.
In 2006 she published "China Chic", a
glossy book examining how Chinese style has influenced the world
not only in fashion but in cuisine and furniture as
well.
Moving from designer to celebrity in
her own right, last year she starred as a judge on reality
television series "Project Runway", about up-and-coming
designers.
It is all a far cry from her humble
roots in southern China. Born in 1957, Tam started life under
communist rule in Guangzhou, now one of the smog-filled industrial
centres of the country's factory-fuelled boom.
But communism did not suit her
parents, so they fled to British-ruled Hong Kong when Tam was just
three years old. Despite economic hardship, Tam said the next 22
years in Hong Kong were "happy times" as she went on to study
fashion at a local university.
After moving to New York to pursue
her dreams in 1982, Tam sold her first designs to Henri Bendel --
the launcher of many a fashion career -- and a handful of other
Manhattan boutiques. Her first collection appeared in
1994.
"I went (to America) with a dream. To
this day I can't believe it, that I developed a brand," she
said.
There is a Chinese saying that goes,
"When you drink from the stream, remember the source", and Tam
likes to believe she has stayed true to her origins.
"My mother had a great influence on
me. When I was young, during Chinese New Year, we didn't have money
to buy new clothes, so my mother suggested buying leftover bits and
pieces of cloth to do patchwork -- make new clothes for ourselves,"
she said.
"This inspired me to embrace
individuality, to be unique, to have our own style. What we wore --
it was unique, the only piece in the world, special."
She encourages young artists,
whatever their cultural backgrounds, to follow their
hearts.
"Do what you are passionate about.
Things can happen," she said. "Life is a statement -- make it a
good one."
by Joyce Woo