VIVIENNE TAM Butterfly Dress

Born in Guangzhou, Chinese-American designer Vivienne Tam and her family fled Mainland China after the Communist revolution, when she was just three. They moved to Hong Kong, where Tam grew up and studied design and dressmaking at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
In 1982, Tam packed a first small collection of her designs in a plastic duffel bag and went to New York City.
Nearly three decades later, Tam, now fifty-three years of age (she doesn't look a day over thirty five!!!), has continued to make energetic waves in the international fashion world.
Well-known for her forward-thinking attitude and indulgence in Asian art and symbolism, Tam has unveiled recent collections (both Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter) that draw influence from the fifty year anniversary of the Chinese ballet and that focus on a story of romance, independence, freedom and transformation.
Tam was particularly inspired by the violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" (written in 1959 by Chinese composers), which was built around three acts: Falling in Love, Opposition to an Arranged Marriage, and Transformation into Butterflies.
It is said that the melodies of this concerto are derived from a Shaoxing Opera work on the same subject, that is, the best known and most popular traditional Chinese love story "Butterfly Lovers".
As is Tam's trademark, patterns and prints are the standouts in her latest collections, which are reflected with beautiful butterfly designs in vivid hues.


The super-prolific Tam is known not only as a clothing designer, she has also
• lent her creative touch to the staff uniforms at the now-defunct high-end restaurant Wakiya (at the Gramercy Park Hotel owned by Studio 54 co-founder and style impresario Ian Schrager);
• madeover Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the Hong Kong Disneyland (him in a bright red Mao suit and her in a cherry-blossom red dress);
• designed a collection of outfits featuring pandas to raise funds for the endangered animal’s Sichuan quake-stricken habitat;
• costumed the characters in the Animax movie LaMB;
• brought an infusion of fashion to Hewlett-Packard laptops;
• starred as guest judge in Season 7 of the hit reality series “Project Runway”
(among a gazillion other things).
Seriously, have you ever met a more productive pentagenarian?