Designer Cam Tu Nguyen on her experiences in Duesseldorf
Fashion design – beyond the fashion circus
By Peter Joerdell for R2-Stilikone / Style Icon
Photo: Nguyen
Cam Tu Nguyen, Designer by passion.
Duesseldorf. When Cam Tu asked, whether drawing and sketching clothes could be a profession, she heard the term “fashion designer“ for the first time. She followed that dream until working self employed as a freelance designer.
What are typical events regarding customer contact in the everyday life of a designer and master tailor? “The best moments are when you see tears coming to the eyes of a customer fort he pure joy of seeing herself in the mirror for the first time while wearing a dress especially made for her. That is the best feedback you can imagine.“ Yet she’s also paid her dues at the beginning of her career. “Of course there are also unpleasant experiences to be made. One time I even didn’t hand over the clothes I’d been commissioned to make, because there was trouble about the payment. Yet as time goes by you develop an intuition concerning these things, and you can rely on that.“
After all every new job means a new challenge, and that includes a customer you’ve got to adapt to. And one thing Cam Tu Nguyen did learn, too, is that brides are customers on red alert. “In dealing with them, you need pretty good nerves yourself. They never show up alone, at least their closest friend or maybe even all female family members will be present. Even simply choosing one style of dress may this become a challenge. And during the ensuing weeks, they’re totally stressed out. The worst case scenario are brides, who hunger until they’ve lost like five kilos AFTER the dress has been measured and made. Then you’ve got to improvise heavily and it’s up to you as the tailor to save the fit…“ If you work freelance, there’s always a lot going on, also on an interpersonal level. Especially a tailor needs good soft skills. “But in the end, usually everything worked out“, laughs Cam Tu.
Custom tailor and designer: Combining both qualifications
Her great role models in fashion and design until the present day are all designers who started as nobodies and then managed to electricize the entire world with their creations. Yet until running her own studio in Duesseldorf it was a long and rocky road she had to walk. Being educated as a custom tailor and graduating from university as a fashion designer was a part of that. “I wanted to combine both qualifications, so that I could also produce my own designs.“ Cam Tu Nguyen knows that there are many designers, who lack a profound knowledge on how clothes are made. “They are more into the whole society-circus thing, that’s being celebrated all around fashion. But being on the “Kö” (Duesseldorf’s No. 1 shopping avenue) is not everything.“
For Cam Tu Nguyen on the other end it is important already to have a clear imagination of her idea upon the first drawing, to know how the finished product will look on the person who is going to wear it. “And how am I supposed to manage that, if I don’t know how a particular fabric folds, or how it looks in different sets of light?” In order to manage the 1000 minute details correctly that must be observed when talking about exclusive clothing, you need not just the creative competence of a good designer, yet also the craft-skills of a custom tailor.
Seite 1 von 3
