From Peter Loc Tan Nguyen’s senior collection, which was inspired by men’s tailoring.
1:47pm | Many bright, overachieving students are products of The California Academy of Math and Sciences located in Carson. Many students have, and others will, transform themselves into respected doctors, scientists, and professors. For a private school whose entire curriculum is based around math, science, and biology, that sounds about right. But an Academy of Math and Sciences alumni turned renowned fashion designer?
“It’s definitely kind of weird to be in fashion now,” Peter Loc Tan Nguyen, 23, says with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who took this path from my graduating class.”
For all the questions his path might raise in an observer’s mind, such as how he got from point A to point Z , for Nguyen, his career as a designer did not come completely out of left field.
“It started when I was very young,” he says. “My dad was a manufacturer for clothing in the L.A. area and he would always take me to the factories and I would get to see clothing being produced. Upon graduation, I went out on a limb and decided to apply for fashion school. During my first year of college is when it hit me: This is what I had to do.”
And it seems his college, The Academy of Art University in San Francisco, his University instructors, as well as the international community full-heartedly agrees. Peter recently debuted his Senior collection in San Francisco and it was so well-received that he was awarded the esteemed San Francisco – Paris City Scholarship to study at Studio Berçot in France, a scholarship that only three other students from the University received.
“Peter is a very, very special student,” says Sara Kozlowski, the Academy of Art’s Assistant Director of Fashion Design and an instructor whom Peter studied under during his Senior year. “He’s very humble, very self-motivated, and tends to be more methodical and quiet. When you get to know him you see there’s a real passion for his process.” Kozlowski, who was also on the selection committee for the scholarship award goes on to explain Peter’s unique fashion sense which helped earn him the opportunity to study in Paris. “Peter double-majored in Knitwear and Fashion Design,” she explains, “And when it came time to develop his Senior Collection it was really important to him to find a new and different way to blend those two practices. Rather than having a collection with some separates made from knitwear and some from woven, he really invented a new vocabulary of how knits could actually be tailored and how wovens could actually be cut in ways that would normally be used for knitwear.”
Explaining his collection in his own terms, Nguyen tells how he was inspired by menswear tailoring.
“I appreciate how there are boundaries within menswear tailoring and that there’s a technique you have to follow, like working the parameter. I’ve always been a fan of structure and construction, and menswear has a lot of construction in it. I love seeing the construction of a men’s suit. I wasn’t trying to reinvent menswear –just add my own aesthetic to it.”
Whether Nguyen’s re-inventing a style or just adding his own distinct touch to a classic, the process to achieve the end result is the same.
“My projects have always been about construction and lines and how the clothes are made so I try to keep that within all my projects. From there I then start researching more in-depth, searching for something that will spark inspiration. From there I do a series of sketches, about 40, to get all my thoughts out, and that process is about a week or two of just sketching . . .from those sketches I then narrow down to what I really like and I pull those ideas out and start putting them together, picking fabrics and colors and towards the end of the process everything just starts melting together and that’s the easiest part. That’s when you start realizing what you really, really want . . .and you just go for it.”
It is that structured and determined attitude that Kozlowski sees taking Peter to advanced stages in life.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future Peter launches his own endeavor!” she exclaims. “When he returns from Paris I hope that he will pursue job opportunities in New York. I could see him at Donna Karen or at Helmut Lang but I think eventually he will go off onto his own. He’s really got a distinct aesthetic and a point-of-view that’s refreshing.”
That point-of-view is garnering attention not just in San Francisco and Paris, but most recently, Vancouver Canada. At the beginning of August Ngyuen received a sponsorship to show his collection at the upcoming Spring 2012 Vancouver Fashion Week. His collection was one of a handful selected out of thousands that were submitted by international designers. Considering that past designers featured at Vancouver Fashion Week include Versace, Anna Sui, and Lauren Vidal, young Nguyen is making his mark early on within the fashion industry, and for all the passion that goes into his craft, that mark still comes as a bit of a surprise to him.
“I feel like a lot of things that I didn’t plan for are happening,” he says. “All I know is that it’s all worked out amazingly so far and I’m very open to whatever is next.”
Wherever his path continues to lead him there’s no denying the road he’s already traveled, a road that has included his hometown of Long Beach, a city that has helped mold him into the international designer he is quickly becoming.
“Long Beach has shaped me and my designs, and it wasn’t something I even realized until I really thought about it,” he remarks. “We have this ease about everything here, we’re all very low-key and understated, we have a very relaxed style. I do feel like I did bring that essence into my collection. It was very structured but it’s more of a soft structuring and everything was very easy, nothing to harsh or crazy, it’s all very understated which I feel like represents the environment I grew up in.”
As he gears up to begin his studies in France, this Long Beach boy is most looking forward to learning new techniques and different processes, while refreshing his creativity through studying the culture and viewing up close the architecture of old churches and European museums.
“I really want to travel all over Europe and view different architectures and pull from those from inspiration . . .I also can’t wait to be exposed to new internships and just seeing how another fashion school works. And just eating their food and meeting new people . . . but I’m especially excited about eating their food,” he laughs.
While he’s across the Atlantic munching on baguettes and crepes, Long Beach residents can be content knowing that one of their own is making his name known in the fashion world. You never know, perhaps next time you’re strolling down 2nd Street you may stumble into your favorite boutique and find an article of clothing you just have to own. Check out the tag . . . it may very well say Peter Loc Tan Nguyen on the label.