Tam, Vivienne

Vivienne Tam (b. 1962) was born in China, and grew up in Hong Kong. She went to New York in 1981, and in 1983 established her design company, East Wind Code, Ltd. From the beginning, Tam’s clothes have been a happy marriage of East and West. Many of the designs have Chinese themes, often on Western forms.

Perhaps her most famous collection was her Mao collection of 1994. The image of Chairman Mao was altered, and some of the images are even playful, a far cry from the grim faced Mao the world was familiar with – Mao with a bee on his nose, or with pigtails on the sides of his head!

Tam is still designing beautiful, wearable clothes that have multiple influences.

Written by fuzzylizzie

from an early-1980s dress/coat set

Courtesy of Molli

from an early-1980s garment

Courtesy of VFG

from an early-1990s garment

Courtesy of shopping-goddess

from a mid-1990s embroidered jacket

Courtesy of fuzzylizzie.com

from a 1990s coat

Courtesy of Ranchqueenvintage