Fashion designers/brands are often inspired by great cities. From Paris, Rome, London, and New York to Bangkok, Bali, and Morocco choosing an exotic location or a city with great cultural influence is par for the course for many designers/brands. Yet, within that pantheon of great international cities that have served as a point of reference for fashion brands, Houston, Texas does not rank near the top of the list. That is, unless the fashion designer is Vivienne Tam.
Known as a fashion designer that often opts for unorthodox points of reference for her collections—political iconography, chinoiserie, Victorian style—, using Houston, Texas a point of reference for her spring 2017 collection is not our of line with the kinds of unconventional motifs that Tam has explored in past collections. And for spring 2017 Tams opts for Houston as a modern expression of the ever-evolving hodgepodge of America’s cultural mixed salad.
From NASA, Rice University, the Houston Ballet to Tex Mex cuisine, Southwest culture, and the Houston Rodeo, Houston, Texas is a reflection of America’s continued experiment with diversity. And Tam taps into this multicultural cornucopia by creating a collection that mixes all these influences seen through a fashion-forward lens of modern sensibility that is extremely retail friendly.
For the past couple of seasons, Tam has developed collections that have relied heavily on separates. And this is a good thing, especially for this spring 2017 collection. Tam employs the current trends of off-the-shoulder blouses, fringed edges and metallic and sequined embellishment. All of these trends appear in Tam’s separates, making this collection very retail friendly.
Images courtesy of vogue.com
Tam also gives a nod to denim in this collection, conjuring images of the early 70s with this inclusion, particularly when Tam employs baby doll silhouettes, flared pants, NASA decals, and print patterns of armadillos, butterflies and wild flowers. Standout looks in the collection include Tam’s NASA bayou-appliqued white tulle dress with H-Town logo badges, burnt orange Mexican flower-appliqued denim dress, red cotton western shirt with spoonbill lace and red lace ruffle skirt, and white butterfly garden lace long dress with NASA and butterfly appliques.
—Rosemary Ponzo
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