Hanoi, Vietnam — Love on First Sight

Hanoi was love on first sight. I was so fascinated by the people — they embodied something that to me defined the word coolness. Not performed, just lived. The elderly men in their perfectly chosen clothes. Workers in the street with bamboo pipes. Women carrying goods in baskets on their heads. The motorbike culture — layered up to avoid the sun, always moving, always styled.

I was lucky to meet an amazing group of young artists, just out of the academy, who introduced me to the city. It did not take long for me to decide to rent a place for a few months and work on a collection there.

I set up an atelier, bought a sewing machine and found two assistants. We went to markets to buy fabric, dyed fabrics, cut fabrics. Finding a tailor was harder. Many refused me — my designs were simply not to their taste. The trend in Hanoi at the time was sparkly, glitzy, body-conscious. I was making staff talik bomber jackets with chunky zips and plaid shirts with patches. Not their aesthetic.
Eventually I found Túan. An amazing guy — and the beginning of a working relationship that continued

I learned massively about color as there is a whole other range of hues in the city, the buildings the garments the foliage of plants.

Hanoi is an extremely photogenic and place many times I felt I am in a photo.
( The only music that I thought was possible to listening to while riding on the back of a motorbike was  - Nico and the Velvet Underground ).