by Dr. Diane Do
Phuong My Tran is a rising star and a force to be reckoned with in the glamorous world of high fashion. Born in 1988 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Phuong My is taking her PHUONG MY brand to the global fashion stage of New York Fashion Week. Known for her feminine and elegant silhouettes, exquisite craftsmanship and luxurious fabrics, Phuong My debuted her Fall 2019 Sayonara collection at NYFW on February 12, 2019. This is the American fashion industry’s biggest showcase where the top designers as well as new, emerging designers showcase their latest collections. The trends and styles displayed on these cat walks will inspire the collections of fast-fashion retailers, paint across fashion magazines and websites and even permeate our day to day street fashion in a few months.
Phuong My named the collection Sayonara to represent the brand’s emotional sayonara or goodbye to the Asian fashion shows as they step into the US market. Accordingly, as you step into Gallery II of Spring Studios, the venue for NYFW, red saturated the room with the emotions of love and passion. Swirling, circular fabrics flew up and down creating a sultry flame as the backdrop for the runway. The Sayonara collection features three bold colors: white, red and black each representing the different emotions of a woman’s life. Phuong My explains that she chose white to represent the purity, simplicity and innocence of a young woman. The second phase of a woman’s life is represented by red, the color for love, passion and aspiration. Finally, black represents a woman’s third phase of evolution where she overcomes hardship, masters self control and becomes self empowered. Attendees who sat front and center at the Phuong My show were the perfect embodiment of this women’s empowerment theme with Miss Universe Catriona Gray, Miss Vietnam H’Hien Nie and Miss Universe pageant judge Iman Ibou and ambassador Esther Swan. Also present were actress Julianne Michelle and Chriselle Lim as well as industry leaders Valerie Steele and Patricia Mears from Fashion Institute of Technology.
The Evolution of Phuong My .
Phuong My, creative director of the PHUONG MY brand, graduated from the American Academy of Art in San Francisco and began her design career by winning top awards for two prestigious contests , Are You Runway Ready in New York City and The Discarded to Divine Project in San Francisco in 2010. In 2013 she returned to Vietnam to launch her own brand PHUONG MY and quickly became a fashion darling in Vietnam. Phuong My soon expanded her brand to Asia, Europe and the Middle East where her collections have been warmly welcomed. Phuong My was the first and only Vietnamese designer to showcase her Spring Summer collection at the Arab Fashion Week in Dubai in 2018 where she was joined by members of the royal families in the Middle East.
Her elegant designs have also been featured in Vogue Italia, British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. She now has 30 stores in 20 countries including France, Italy, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Dubai, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates with plans to expand in the US. With the launch of her Sayonara collection at NYFW, Phuong My has taken a huge step into the US fashion world and is poised to blaze her own trail in the US. Just like the women who inspire her latest collection, Phuong My continues to evolve as a world class fashion designer.
