FASHION | PROFILE
the Lotus of SoHo COMES HOME
I
t was a spectacular autumn day in New York City when Lotus Hom, a boutique in the city’s famed SoHo shopping district, closed its doors for the last time. It was a sad occasion, but mixed with the melancholy there was also an air of celebration, like the brilliant fall colors that marked the end of one season and the start of another. “I was so sad that I had to leave my colleagues and partners who stood with me from the beginning, but at the same time, I was so excited and happy to think that I would soon be returning to my motherland,” recalls Nan Mo Hom, the owner of Lotus Hom, of the day she closed her designer boutique in November 2012. “My dream of bringing New York’s fashions to my country had come true, but I felt such a mixture of excitement, happiness and sadness at the time that I can hardly express it.” An ethnic Shan who graduated from Mandalay University, Nan Mo Hom had already had a successful career in Myanmar’s hotel industry, working in her early twenties as a marketing executive for the Sedona
54
TheIrrawaddy
PHOTOS: COURTESY LOTUS HOM
By ZARNI MANN / YANGON
PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY
After a successful run in one of the world’s fashion meccas, a designer brings her talents back to her homeland
April 2014