Runway to success

A determined path

Blending cultures is in Vivienne Tam's DNA. Ever since her debut in 1982, a blending of Chinese and Western elements has been her signature.

Tam - who grew up poor in a tiny flat in Shek Kip Mei - recalls how, from the age of eight, her mother would take her to Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok to buy fabric ends for making cheongsam and other outfits for the family. At the time, Tam says, local people didn't appreciate Chinese culture the way they do now. Western styles were the epitome of sophistication and luxury. Also Hong Kong was a mercantile place: a hard-scrabble manufacturing hub, not an incubator for young designers.

None of this deterred Tam, who was determined to bring Chinese culture and its traditional sartorial designs to the world. Following an inspiring trip to New York, the young designer returned to Hong Kong and made 20 outfits using locally made fabrics. She then packed them up to pitch the Big Apple's biggest department stores - initially, to no avail. Persisting through multiple setbacks, Tam got her first order - and window - from Carol Brown, a buyer at the Henri Bendel department store. It was a deal that would herald the start of the designer's illustrious career.

Since then Tam has made it her passion and mission to incorporate elements of Chinese culture into every one of her collections, from Chinese Imperial Palace architecture and the Dunhuang murals to chinoiserie decorations, and reinterpretations of cheongsam collars and Chinese knots. Her recent collections include kung fu jackets and cheongsam reconstructed in washed and jacquard denim. Chinese porcelain motifs turned into prints and embroidery on dresses also figure.

She finds inspiration in Hong Kong landscapes. In 2021 she went hiking in the SAR's country parks as well as urban areas, seeking out off-beat routes. Some of the ideas gathered during those treks went into her City Camouflaged collection. A campaign for the collection filmed on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and around Po Lin Monastery was launched online amid the pandemic.

"Hong Kong is ever-changing," she notes. "Every time I come back there's something new: new buildings, new brands, new shops, new restaurants, new chefs, new happenings and innovations." She adds that the city's arts scene is getting more exciting, especially since the opening of M+ and Hong Kong Palace Museum, institutions which resonate with Tam's own East-meets-West ethos.