Publications

In this edition of Fashion & Memory, I interviewed Jodinand Aguillon, the visionary artist and entrepreneur behind Glorious Dias, a Manila-based vintage brand that has captured the hearts of fashion enthusiasts worldwide. Known for his treasure-hunter skills and dynamic social media presence, Aguillon has carved a unique niche in the fashion world, blending sustainability, cultural heritage, and innovative design.

This article situates the Asian Fashion Archive within broader efforts to decolonize fashion studies, emphasizing the potential of digital tools in disrupting traditional hierarchies and advocating for nuanced representations. It reflects on the project’s development, challenges and impact, while calling for new directions for inclusive and accessible fashion scholarship.

In this “Fashion & Memory” piece for Fashion & Market, I speak with Angela Hermano Crenshaw about Filipino dress, identity, and family legacies. 

In this edition of “Fashion & Memory,” fashion designer Vu Ta Linh reflects on the profound influence of his family on his design practice, shedding light on how personal heritage shapes his creative vision.

This article features Vietnamese visual artist and fashion creative director Dzũng Yoko, whose work consistently draws inspiration from Asian culture and history. Dzũng generously shared rare family photos of his grandmother in Vietnam from the 1940s and 1950s, adding a deeply personal layer to his creative journey. Through his powerful photography, Dzũng narrates stories that connect past and present, creating inspiration for today and tomorrow.

This article explores the life and career of Francis Hogan, a Peranakan theatre performer renowned for his female impersonations. Hogan's contributions to Wayang Peranakan and his personal photographs provide a unique perspective on Peranakan culture, highlighting his upbringing and early interest in cross-dressing.

My master's thesis for the Brand and Fashion Management program at Fu Jen Catholic University explores how and why contemporary Taiwanese designers express cultural identity through fashion. 

In this Fashion & Market article, I wrote about how my past experiences have shaped my academic, professional, and personal pursuits, including my journey building the Asian Fashion Archive (@asianfashionarchive).

Coinciding with The Museum at FIT's Food and Fashion exhibition, "The Cross-Cultural Transformations of Chinese Food and Fashion" essay details the history of how Chinese people in the West have been persecuted for their cultural dress and cuisine, as well as explores how contemporary Chinese designers and artists are using fashion and art to overturn Western stereotypical narratives.

My "1995 – Vivienne Tam, Mao Collection" essay for the  FIT Fashion History Timeline documents Tam's spring 1995 collection. For this collection, she collaborated with Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu to create garments featuring portraits of Mao Zedong. Zhang Hongtu manipulated Mao’s image as “a kind of mental therapy" to process his experience during the Cultural Revolution.

The Fashion and Race Database is an online platform filled with open-source tools that expand the narrative of fashion history and challenge misrepresentation within the fashion system. The "Objects That Matter: Qipao" article features a short profile of the qipao, its cultural origins, and enumerated examples of its global reach/influence and even appropriation.

My FIT graduate school qualification paper "Mad for Mao: The Fashionable Fantasy of Communist China" explores how Western culture and fashion glamourized the imagery of Mao Zedong and China's Cultural Revolution to fit a revolutionary and orientalist agenda while ignoring the realities of Chinese life.

The Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. My article "Gucci Strikes Red: China's Love Affair with Gucci" explores the consumer relationship between Gucci and China.

Coinciding with the Exhibitionism: 50 Years of the Museum at FIT exhibition, "The Culture of Learning at MFIT" details the enlightening history of The Museum at FIT and its educational initiatives.