Asian Americans Take Top Fashion Honours

Tuesday 07th of September 2010 06:51:13 PM

Asian Americans Take Top Fashion Honours

In June, the Lincoln Center New York Fashion Week held a surprise. The top awards for best new designers went to Asian-Americans for the first time. The winners were Richard Chai in the men’s wear category; Alexander Wang for fashion accessories; and Jason Wu for the women’s wear collections. And those were not the only awards won by Asian-Americans that June night. There were 3 scholarships handed out to students and all three students were Asian-Americans.

Mr. Wu’s name became more familiar to fashion lovers when American First Lady Michelle Obama wore a Wu dress to the inauguration. Now there is another Fashion Week coming up in New York and Asian-Americans are expected to be a major presence once again as they present fashions ranging from cocktail dresses to sweatshirts for fall and winter. Of course, the sweatshirts you might see at this show will probably not look much like sweatshirts, but you’ll get some great ideas as to how you can jazz your affordable versions.

The Asian-American names expected at the show coming up include Wu and Wang again but also Thakoon Panichgul, Phillip Lim and Prabal Gurung.

One of the reasons that Asian-Americans are becoming a powerful influence in the fashion industry is due to intensive recruitment by fashion design schools. Reaching out to countries where the fashion industry is growing and offering jobs and economic opportunity, there is increased interest by young adults in pursuing a formal education.

The designers will be introducing a variety of clothing including luxury ready-to-wear collections and limited edition designs. One of the interesting facts about the Asian-American designers is that there is not a common design foundation like that found with Japanese designers. Asian-American designers do not rely on culture to influence their designs. As a result, there are many styles that include polished dresses and off-the-rack sweaters for example.

Everyone is looking forward to the upcoming Fashion Week show in New York to see what the new season is bringing. But one thing you can count on is that there will be Asian-American designers setting trends.