Society

East in vogue as US puts on the style for export

By Kelly Chung Dawson (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-29 07:54

Next generation

A design of Derek Lam showing at New York Fashion Week. Lam's line is sold at the luxurious Joyce Boutique in Hong Kong. [Provided to China Daily]

Most of the Asian designers now coming under the spotlight are all former students of Parsons, generally regarded as housing one of the best fashion design programs in the United States.

According to school statistics, about 70 percent of the program's international students are from Asia. Meanwhile, the Fashion Institute of Technology, also in New York, reports that 23 percent of its 1,200 design students are of Asian descent.

"We can't deny the fact that a great many of the most successful designers in the last 10 years have been Asian," said Parsons' Collins, who with Lam has been asked to judge Creative Sky, a Chinese television design contest similar to Project Runway in the US.

"We don't assess people with any relation to their ethnicity," he continued, "but when someone from (China) becomes internationally famous, it might open the eyes of other people to something they've previously not looked at as an option."

Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, chairwoman of the Pratt Institute's fashion department, said the number of Asian students who have applied and been accepted to the program has gone up significantly over the last few years.

"There's been a lot of influence of very innovative thinking from Asian designers," she said. "With the economic changes that have been happening in Asia, there's more opportunity for people to have design careers. That economic shift has led to more people wanting to go into design and doing so by searching out an education in the US."

So what has fueled this desire for fashion design among Asian students?

Kolb at the Council of Fashion Designers of America speculates the high numbers of Asian people working in the manufacture of clothes likely contributes to a growing interest in the creative side.

Indeed, Lam has spoken in several interviews about the influence his family's California-based bridal gown import business had on his career. A smaller early wave of Asian designers in the 1980s including Vivienne Tam, Anna Sui and Vera Wang also attributed their development to similar reasons.

"The majority of the Asian designers out there right now are second-generation Americans. Our parents came to the US and traveled the traditional route of becoming doctors, engineers, and architects," added Gurung. "It gave us the opportunity to choose less traditional careers."

Derek Lam, who is Chinese-American, is one of the most successful fashion designers in New York. [Provided to China Daily]

Michelle Obama wears the gown designed by Jason Wu during her husband Barack's inauguration as the 44th US president. [Provided to China Daily]

 

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