Asian Americans in Design

Alexander Wang, 25

I suppose this isn’t news, but the Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday about the rise of Asian American designers.  I’ve noticed this for a long time, and in fact, it’s not new at all.  David Chu from Nautica and Vera Wang from…Vera Wang…have been doing well in the industry for years.  According to the article, there has been a generational shift that has allowed more Asian Americans to enter the field.  Which is a good thing, of course–expression is always a good thing, especially when it can become your livelihood.

Here’s a funny quote:

Of course, some Asian-American designers had parents who were adamant in their expectations of traditional success. Phillip Lim, the 36-year-old Thailand-born designer who started a women’s fashion line in 2005, didn’t tell his parents before he switched majors in college from business to home economics and fashion merchandising.

He says his mother and father, a seamstress and a professional poker player, respectively, expressed disappointment. “They said, ‘We worked so hard. We brought you here. Why would you do that? No one looks up at us, we are the lowest class.’ The whole guilt trip,” says Mr. Lim, whose first men’s fashion presentation will be tomorrow. “But that wasn’t going to stop me from doing what I wanted to do.”

So his dad wants him to go into a traditional field, yet his dad is a “professional poker player?”  C’mon, dad, double down on his fashion career!

(Thanks, Joseph, for the article.)

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