What happened#
Vivienne Tam is celebrating her brand’s birthday in style. Marking her eponymous New-York based label’s 30th year in business this year, the Chinese designer is crossing the pond and showcasing her collection during Paris Fashion Week for the first time for fall 2024.
The event will take place on March 2nd at the city's thriving art hub Palais De Tokyo, and will kick off a series of yearlong anniversary celebrations to arrive from Tam spanning Paris, New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The cultural fusion pioneer designer is also set to launch a mini retrospective exhibition later this year.
“Fashion is my vehicle to enrich the human spirit through bridging the creative heritage between the East and the West and bringing Chinese culture to the world,” Tam said in a press release. “The celebrations of my house’s 30th anniversary demand a befitting pedestal and there is no better suited location for me to show my next collection than Paris, a city that has always embraced me and continues to inspire me.”
The Jing Take#
Born in Guangzhou, China, Tam spent her childhood in Hong Kong before establishing a career in fashion in New York with her namesake brand in 1994. Tam’s spiritual iconography, notably signature Buddha designs, quickly struck a chord with the metropolis’ style crowd during the late ‘90s, with early arbiters including Madonna and Julia Roberts supporting her work.
Tam’s Mao suit from her spring 1995 Mao Zedong collection – widely regarded as her breakthrough fashion moment after causing such a cultural storm it was banned in China – is currently featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute “Women Dressing Women” exhibition. The creative’s Kuan Yin printed mesh dress from her spring 1997 collection was also archived by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and included in the Costume Institute’s most-attended fashion exhibit in history, ‘China: Through The Looking Glass’ in 2015.
Today, Tam’s sources of inspiration span beyond her cultural roots to help fuel innovation. The designer has more recently looked to the burgeoning realm of the metaverse and Web3 as key points of interest. Her three decades have seen much change in the industry.
In March last year, Tam launched her first non-fungible token (NFT) dress during Metaverse Fashion Week; a virtual qipao dress digitally embroidered with three avatars from Bored Ape Yacht Club. For her Fall/Winter 2023 ‘Weaving into the Metaverse’ collection, Tam brought the digital world onto the runway in the form of iconic NFT characters and PFPs sewn into physical garments, marking the first time such imagery was seen on the runway.
Tam’s indelible influence on the fashion industry hasn’t gone unnoticed by Chinese consumers and fans. In 2016, she received Beijing InStyle Expo's Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to the promotion of Chinese culture. After 30 years of commitment to integrating Chinese heritage into Western craftsmanship, Tam’s next chapter begins by enchanting Paris’ prestigious fashion set with a collection that promises to blend Chinese traditions and French sartorial style with bold motifs inspired by the Year of the Dragon.
The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.