fashion
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TAORAY WANG China's Leading Desginer Conquers New York
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By Christopher A. Pape
ang Tao, is one of China’s most celebrated and accomplished designers and a pioneer of contemporary Chinese women’s fashion. Over the past two decades, Wang Tao has grown from an aspiring designer to one of Asia’s most successful female entrepreneurs, launching her namesake brand TAORAY WANG at New York Fashion Week in September 2014. After graduating from the Japanese fashion institute, Tokyo Mode Gakeun, Wang was hand-picked by Junko Koshino, the highly acclaimed Japanese designer, as head designer and awarded five international fashion awards during her tenure. After working in London, she returned to China to become the Chief Design Officer and subsequently CEO for the Chinese fashion house broadcast:bo, repositioning the brand and achieving huge success both in brand recognition and revenue. Largely in part due to Wang’s leadership, Shanghai Ribo Fashion Group, parent company to broadcast:bo, TAORAY WANG among others, is set to receive an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange early next year. An international brand, with its head office in Shanghai, studios in London and New York City and fabrics sourced from France and Italy, “Strength and Femininity” are merged with “East Meets West” to bring you design house TAORAY WANG.
38 | Metropolitan
Wang Tao, debuted the brand’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection last month at Skylight Moynihan Station as a part of New York Fashion Week where we sat down with the designer to learn more about her new collection. What is your philosophy for dressing a woman? It is a philosophy but also a politic. My aesthetic is deeply rooted in my own belief in the Taoist principle of ying and yang, masculine and feminine, the balance of the universe. However, this balance of the universe is also part of my universal ideals of equality, of cosmopolitanism. If the question is who am I designing for, then my collection is for a powerful, professional, modern woman “on the go,” but one who’s power does not cancel her femininity but emboldens it. For me, it is the principle of balance, it is important that a woman always dress with femininity; a touch of armored grace. Her clothing should convey this message and I make sure to add details to my designs to show she is not only a strong, confident woman but also elegant and feminine at the same time. She is both. From a practical standpoint of course, fit is also very important to me as I like to have the measurements of my clients so that my clothing can be tailored for the woman, perfectly draped on her body.