Asian Designers Emerging on Montreal Scene

It’s interesting to see that when it comes to glamour, it’s not the name of a French Canadian that fits the designer bill, it’s the name of a Vietnamese designer named Andy Thê-Anh (pictured left). When it comes to feminine, flowery designs, we turned to another emerging Vietnamese designer, Dinh Bà. A few years ago, there was the line of YSO by Siphay Southidara, originally from Laos, who currently works for Parasuco. On this year’s Project Runway Canada, another Montrealer of Chinese descent, Lincoln Cheung was among the 12 designers competing for the grand prize (unfortunately, he got voted off). Lincoln now works for Bedo, a sophisticated Montreal-based line for men and women.

This is just to say that asian designers are bursting out into the Montreal fashion scene and applications are pouring into famed fashion colleges like LaSalle and Marie-Victorin. If you look on LaSalle’s front page, there’s now a section written in Vietnamese, this is honestly the first time I’ve seen any local establishment not dominated by asians, actually acknowledging the existence of non-Chinese, non-Japanese students

Proving the successful run of the likes of Andy Thê-Anh, aspiring asian designers have hope in making it here. Finally, asians no longer have to be bogged down by stereotypes of qi pao and kimono fashions, they can truly elevate themselves above and beyond their restrictions and let their imaginations run wild.