Peculiar Creature
Amy Nguyen has a fascination with surfaces that leads her through a winding path of iterations involving texture and pattern. She is both skilled at the Japanese dyeing technique of shibori, essentially a more sophisticated method of tie-dye that has evolved through the centuries, and at piecing together fabrics to make complex shapes.
Hers is a meeting point between East and West, where Asian aesthetics flow seamlessly into an independent design sensibility that adores how cloth drapes itself across the body, and delights in myriad ways of shaping the form of a garment to produce innovative garments that take the mind to new places. Robustly made, one of her signature series, the swing coat, is an apt example of this gift for finding the apex of originality and style.
The name itself is appropriate. The swing coat series is actually more of a canvas upon which many variations are derived. Its shape is not strictly defined, but tends to be loosely gathered around the body, with a high collar, able to be wrapped around one's self or hang freely. Sometimes the waist is tightened slightly and brought in, but mostly it is made for enveloping one's figure rather than accentuating it.
It is in the surface design that Nguyen goes wild in her creative expression. From patterning; squares, circles, stripes, chevrons, diamonds, to materials, with linen, wool, silk and cotton being her favorite picks, cutting holes, quilting, piecing, layering, all of these variables are tweaked from garment to garment, assembled into a coherent, jazzy, playful and joyous whole. All of this is done by hand, from the dyeing process, both arashi and itajime techniques, to the cutting of the fabric and its being stitched together. Nguyen, her husband Ky, and her assistants work together to create these magnificent textiles.
Nguyen's names for her styles of coats, asymmetrical, travel, artist, illustrate that her genius in labeling matches her careful consideration of design. From clothes intended to make a statement to protective wraps crafted for being on the go, Amy's goal is to create clothing that fills every role in the wardrobe, and to do so in a way that pushes the limits of both art and fashion while paying attention to the role of the human hand.