Designer Cuong Dam on How Architecture and Eastern-Asian Culture Inspires his Designs
The rising Vietnamese designer uses his past experience in architecture as a structured guideline for his work in fashion design.
The new interpretations of the traditional can create demand from fashion aficionados everywhere. Specifically, the Eastern-Asian and Vietnamese culture has been the source of the endless creative inspiration, expressed through modern look by younger notable public figures in Vietnam like Quynh Anh Shyn and The Face Vietnam 2017 winner Tu Hao by a rising Vietnamese designer in his latest collection "LUSTER".
For one designer, his distinct creations are the amalgamation of two separate forms of art – architecture and design. Despite spending years of his life honing his skills in the former, Vietnamese designer and founder of rising Asian brand CHATS by C.DAM – Cuong Dam found his true calling in fashion.
“I realised that fashion is what I was really fit for,” says Cuong. “It wasn't something impulsive. My passion for fashion has been nurtured since I was a kid. I was fascinated by fabrics and interested in doing anything to make women be more beautiful.” Not to put his talents in his former job to waste, Cuong adapts his skills to the creative process of fashion design to produce stylish and modern pieces inspired by Eastern-Asian culture.
Though it wasn’t an easy process for Cuong to monetise his passion and learn a new skill from scratch, the designer turned to his foundations in architecture to shape and structure his visions for his collections. “Although fashion and architecture seem unrelated, in fact, the art forms have similar principles in ratio, the connection of details creating a unified overall structure, building and materials. Above all, they all carry the mission of understanding human needs and creating images that touch the emotions of the audience,” Cuong elaborates.
On top of that, Cuong takes inspiration from his culture to create modernised ready-to-wear traditional wear and goods. “In the flow of time, Eastern-Asia culture has constantly developed and traditional costumes are the unique beauty in that diverse cultural treasure,” continues Cuong. “At CHATS by C.DAM, we choose to transform traditional values into new ones without losing the inherent beauty. This is the way that we choose to bring Vietnamese cultural values as well as Eastern-Asian culture closer to the international public.”
The result? Stylish pieces that are reminiscent of Vietnamese culture in every shape, form and essence; the embodiment of classic Vietnamese straw hats in fine leather bags, reinterpretation of traditional wide-legged pants in bag handles, and more. And the reception has garnered the designer nothing but praise – with Cuong’s ‘Warriors in Yoshiwara’ collection being especially well-received by critics for honouring women’s rights, labelling him one of the top 06 designers at the Vietnam NewGen Fashion Awards, organised by Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam and the LCDF.
Cuong’s other collections ‘LUSTER’, ‘INFLOW’ and bag collection “Đàm” (The Conversation) also utilise Vietnamese cultural objects like paper fans, bell-shapes, radial folds and traditional wear like Áo-dài (Vietnamese women’s dress) to complement the old with the new.
To find out more about CHATS by C.DAM, visit https://chatsbycdam.com/.
