Just So Sick Girls: Emergence of Asian Americans in the Fashion Scene

As I flip through fashion magazines from the past few years, I notice that the names of Asian American designers are popping up more and more often. Although not as well known as fashion giants like Chanel, Dior, Prada, etc., they are very successful and will still be relevant in years to come, so familiarize yourself with the following designers (I left out Vera Wang because Stephanie already covered her):

One of the most established Asian American designers is Anna Sui. She was born to French-educated Chinese emigrants in 1964 in a suburb of Michigan, where hers was the only Asian family in town. After high school, she moved to New York to attend Parsons School of Design, but dropped out after two years and dove headfirst into the industry. Her first collection was created in 1980, and she ran her label out of her New York apartment for much of the 80s until she premiered her fist runway show in 1991. The following year she opened her first flagship store on Greene Street in Soho and then launched a successful beauty line. Today she has 32 boutiques in five countries and her collection is sold in 300 stores in over 30 countries. Her clothes are always full of energy and are influenced by her current cultural obsession.

Phillip Lim, the creative director of 3.1 Phillip Lim, is much newer to the scene than Anna Sui. His parents were Chinese immigrants and he grew up in Orange County, California. His interests in design stemmed from discovering Katayone Adeli's collection, and afterwards interned and landed a spot on her design team. In 2004, he moved to New York to start his own line with his business partner, Wen Zhou. He describes his work as "classic with a sense of madness."

Another designer who entered the industry at around the same time is Thakoon Panichgul. He was born in Thailand, moved to the U.S. when he was eleven, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. With a business degree from Boston University, he worked as a merchandiser for J. Crew and a writer covering fashion trends for Harper’s Baazar, and he studied tailoring at Parsons before starting his own line.

Doo-Ri Chung, a Korean-American designer, started her label, Doo.Ri, in 2001. After graduating Parsons with a bachelor in fine arts in fashion, she worked at Geoffrey Beene for six years as head designer. As for her own line, she had been working out of the basement of her parents’ dry-cleaning store in New Jersey before receiving a financial boost from an Ecco Domani award and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.

One of the newest and youngest (only 24!) designers is Alexander Wang, a Chinese American born and raised here in San Francisco. At the age of 18, he moved to New York and attended Parsons, but dropped out by his sophomore year to design his own line. His full collection was launched in 2007 and is now selling in over 150 boutiques and retail stores internationally.