Leader of the pack
Tram Nguyen, designer for Apparatchik, emerges as the fresh face on the Chicago fashion scene
By Britt Julious
Published: January 31st, 2008 | 2:21pm
On first glance, 23-year-old Maryland native Tram Nguyen’s designs for Apparatchik appear whimsical, flirty, and young. Her colorful cocktail dresses, skirts, and tops are approachable in their modern, sleek structure. Upon a further assessment, however, one is taken away by Nguyen’s attention to detail, use of metallic and sheer fabrics, and intricate quilting, a staple of her line based in Chicago.
For Nguyen, her foray into the world of fashion was less sporadic and more an expected transition. “There never really was the question of ‘What am I going to do when I grow up?” Nguyen says. “Fashion feels so natural, it was kind of a given that I'd end up in this industry in one form or another.” A normally private and shy person who spent years making her designs in her studio, Nguyen was thrust into the spotlight within the last year. After the launch of her website in Spring of 2007 featuring a mini-collection of dresses and separates, Nguyen was chosen to be one of Gen Art Chicago’s Fresh Faces in Fashion. Her first full collection was shown during the Chicago Fashion Week in October of 2007. “I was totally unprepared for what was to follow,” says Nguyen.
In a market immersed in carefully cultivated fashion school grads, Nguyen is a self-taught designer who used TimeLife sewing books from the seventies to teach herself how to sew. After high school, she moved to Toulouse, France where she apprenticed with a local designer while honing her pattern making and draping skills. This background in self-instruction is beneficial for Nguyen’s designs, influences, and aesthetics. “I work very intuitively,” Nguyen says. “The design process for me is always meandering and non-linear. I try to work with whatever fabrics and techniques I'm drawn to at that moment and trust that a coherent narrative will emerge within the collection.”
“I find the juxtaposition of centuries old techniques within a modern context endlessly fascinating,” Nguyen says. Her traditional use of handicrafts in thoroughly modern clothing is evident in her wonderfully unique use of quilting on the multi-colored cocktail dresses of her Spring/Summer 2008 collection. “I love the purity of quilting, with simple materials like thread and batting, you can transform a mundane fabric like white muslin into something really special,” she says.
As for aesthetic inspiration, Nguyen claims that she is a “big design junkie” favoring such furniture and product designers as Naoto Fukasawa, Shiro Kuramata, and Ettore Sottsass. Other inspirations are not always as traditional, Nguyen notes. “Ever since I've seen the movie The Warriors, I've been obsessed with this idea of tribalism but in a modern context. You don't see it translated very literally in my collections, but the idea of "urban tribalism" is always in the back of my mind,” she says. Another influence, the band Gogol Bordello, is also evident in her work. “It's this crazy clash of gypsy and punk without being gimmicky. These seemingly disparate influences coexist in a really natural way,” says Nguyen. For her Fall 2008 collection, Nguyen’s influences are drawn from across the pond, specifically Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai and the 1994 film of two minimally connected stories Chungking Express. “I wanted to capture the looseness of that particular film, there's a certain sense of spontaneity.”
Although she is gaining a strong following locally, Nguyen is trying to set herself apart from the influx of the mass-market fashion industry. “It's so easy to go to one of the many fast fashion chains and buy a cute trendy dress for almost nothing,” Nguyen begins. “I think my clothing is a response to that, the sartorial equivalent of the "slow food" movement. I'm not interested in becoming a huge faceless brand, I'd like to keep it relatively small and personal.” This brand of success not only involves the materials and construction of her clothing, but the name as well. The name Apparatchik is derived from Russian and translates to “a member of a political party.” Drawing influence from Barbara Hulanicki, designer of mod-chic label Biba from the ‘60s and ‘70s, Nguyen is after a different mark of success. “[Barbara Hulanicki] created a brand with such a strong iconic identity and had such a huge influence on a generation of girls in England,” Nguyen says. “Calling my label Apparatchik is a bit tongue-in-cheek and ideally I'd like to have that same cultish following.”
In the meantime, Nguyen is embracing her word of mouth reputation in Chicago. “Chicagoans are a pragmatic bunch, mainly concerned with combating the wonderful weather we have here,” Nguyen says. “Hopefully our fashion talent won't feel the need to abandon Chicago for the fashion capitals of NYC and LA, and we'll have more fashion risk-takers. I think with time, we may become a major fashion city.” From the looks of it, Nguyen just might be the unique innovator to welcome in a new era of style.
Issue #36
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more