• Name: Nhu Duong
    Profession: Designer
    Location: Paris
    Age: XX

  • Questionnaire: Nhu Duong

    Describe yourself in a single sentence?
    – Viet-Kieu fashion designer with Scandinavian undertones.


    What was your last thought before falling asleep last night?
    – How to answer these questions…


    What role does art play in your life?
    – Since I lived in Berlin, most of my friends are artists, musicians, or writers. There is a natural exchange of ideas and sensibilities, which often leads to cross-overs and collaborations. I like my fashion work to exist both in the industry and in the arts.


    What are you working on right now?
    – I recently relocated to Paris from Berlin so I am in the process of setting up my new home and studio here. I have been consulting for a large Chinese sportswear brand for almost two years and I am currently starting a new denim capsule collection to be launched later this year. As soon as the travel ban is lifted, the ambition is to start a brand between Europe and Asia — it might be sustainable fashion or organic fish sauce.


    For what purpose do you design?
    – Fashion exist as a product and an idea at once. There is function and fit as well as technique and branding. It can symbolise many things and transform the wearer. I like to play with that.


    What do you do when nobody looks?
    – Eat in bed. Especially when my boyfriend doesn’t look.


    What inspires you?
    – My fashion is influenced by the community around me. It is about making fashion available to other fields, to use it as a medium where boundaries between different forms of expression and cultures blur.


    Who do you look up to?
    – I look up to my girlfriends who beautifully manage to further their careers while being the most engaged mothers.


    What is the biggest difference difference between life in Vietnam and life in Europe?
    – For me personally the biggest difference is the role of the family. In Vietnam you are very close to your family and everything you do is affected by this dynamic, whether you want it or not. In the West, it is individual self-realization that leads the way, making life more free in many regards, but at times also a bit lonely. I think this is why community and friends play an important role in my work. I see my friends as a substitute family.


    You’ve been travelling a lot and lived at many places, where do you feel at home?
    – Of all the places I have lived, I still feel the most home in Ho Chi Minh City, where I was born and grew up until I was 7 years old. The climate, the smells and the food give a sense of home. I still don’t understand winter.


    What have you learned from your parents?
    – My parents taught me asian discipline and to follow ones own path.


    What do you lie about?
    – I am a very bad liar...


    Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
    – These pictures was taken by my partner Octave over the Christmas holidays. I am cooking Vietnamese cháo gà and playing Mah-Jong in a modernist countryside house near Paris. I am wearing my signature Kung Fu pyjama from my SS17 collection in collaboration with Karl Holmqvist.

  • Photography, Octave XXX, LOCATION, December 2020.