Profile | Chinese-American fashion designer Vivienne Tam on growing up poor in Hong Kong, dressing Jill Biden and empowering women from ethnic minorities

By the age of eight, Tam was already making her own clothes and going on trips with her mother to Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok to buy fabric ends

She likes to teach the West about Chinese culture and when she travels to places like Yunnan and Mongolia, she tries to give women work to help their families

Reading Time:4 minutes

Vivienne Tam and Jill Biden at a luncheon honouring Chinese President Xi Jinping at the US State Department in 2015.

Published: 9:15am, 25 Sep 2021Updated: 2:48pm, 4 Oct 2021

My parents came to Hong Kong from Guangzhou [in southern China] a year before I did. I came at three years old (in the early 1960s), via Macau, with foster parents and when we went through immigration I was coached to say they were my parents.

At the time my parents struggled; they were from a landowning family and lost everything during the Cultural Revolution. We lived in a tiny Shek Kip Mei flat that only had a bed, which doubled as our table to do our homework and eat our meals on. Next to it was my mother’s sewing machine and I would watch her make clothes.

Mother as muse

By the time I was eight years old I was making my own clothes. For Chinese New Year my mother and I went to Sham Shui Po and Fa Yuen Street (in Mong Kok) to buy fabric ends and make outfits for our family.

A young Vivienne Tam wearing one of her own designs.

I watched my mother make cheongsam. When she put one on, she looked so different, it elevated her personality. She would say, this dress is the only one in the world, so that’s how I learned to be an individual. My mother is my muse. She taught me to be creative.

Made in China

In the mid-1970s I went to Hong Kong Polytechnic and studied design, but after I graduated I couldn’t find a design job. There were only merchandiser jobs because Hong Kong only did manufacturing. At the time people didn’t appreciate Chinese culture; everything was about the West because it represented luxury.

In the late 1970s my family made one or two trips back to China and I was fascinated with Chinese culture and wanted to learn more. Chinese calligraphy was beautiful, the colours and textures opened my eyes.

Tam with actress Julia Roberts wearing one of her designs.

The people there were so poor I thought maybe I could use my skills to promote Chinese culture. But my friends and classmates said, people won’t buy from you, you are Chinese, your inspiration comes from China, made in China. But I thought I could do it.

A bite of the Big Apple

During my internship while at Hong Kong Polytechnic, the Trade Development Council hired me as a fashion show coordinator at a trade fair in Dallas, Texas. I got to know some Hong Kong factories through this job. Afterwards, I made a side trip to New York for a few days and that visit changed my life – and I was determined to go back.

SCMP Series

Fall 2021 fashion issue

[ 4 of 15 ]