Internationally acclaimed fashion designer Vivienne Tam presented her first-ever Fashion Yoga collection in the form of a “Live Sculpture Garden,” during Mercedes – Benz New York Fashion Week on Tuesday, September 13th. During the presentation, 20 leading female yogis, dressed head-to-toe in Tam’s new line, performed choreographed yoga led by international yoga experts Rodney Yee and Colleen Yee, creating a living and breathing fashion yoga installation (scroll down for video). For the collection, Tam tapped into the mind of leading Chinese athletic apparel brand owner and Olympic Gold Medalist, Li Ning, creating a partnership between the fashion and athletic apparel world.
An avid Yogi herself, Tam’s mission was to create the modern woman’s Fashion Yoga Collection, a lifestyle line that takes women from Yoga to everyday living. Her idea came to life in 1998, around the opening of her first store. It was then that she designed her Yoga Collection’s logo – an OM symbol made up of expanding layers to represent the ripples of sound, an ancient symbol of harmony between universe and life. The peak at the top of the OM symbolizes the “gassho” of the hands, a pose practiced in yoga to show respect to both heaven and earth.
Tam explains, “I’ve been practicing Yoga since the early 90’s as it provides me with a sense of peace and focus. With my crazy schedule, regularly flying back and forth from Hong Kong to the United States, Yoga has been the one thing that not only keeps me focused but provides me with a sense of peace and better energy. My one frustration was that I could not find athletic apparel in fashionable styles and colors that I could wear to the Yoga studio and then to the office or anywhere else in my everyday life. Because of this, I decided to create a Fashion Yoga Collection.”
Tam has made a career of exploring the creativity and positive energy from mixing people and cultures, which made her Eastern culture and Western modernity collaboration with China’s own Li Ning so symbolic. With his brand, Li Ning has proven himself to be at the forefront of athletic apparel expertise much as Tam is to the world of fashion. The two made an obvious pairing as they both represent symbols of Chinese patriotism and possess expertise in both the fashion and athletic apparel world. Tam is credited to have bridged the gap between East meets West in the fashion world, while Li Ning is a triple gold medalist. In the 2008 Olympics, Li Ning was the final torch bearer and lit the cauldron that created a dazzling historic moment in the history of Olympic Games.
The line will be available online spring 2012, and the prices will range from $65 to $210, www.viviennetam.com. Meanwhile, get a glimpse of the “Live Sculpture Garden” installation as it was presented during Mercedes – Benz New York Fashion Week, below.
