A ceramic statue of a cow stands tall. The shot is black and white, and the music is reminiscent of a Gone With the Wind soundtrack. The slaughterhouse film is "thematically dark, [but] is aesthetically and cinematically poetic and beautiful." A perfect way to describe Trang Chau's design aesthetic. As a result, Chau chose to name her California based clothing line after the George Franju film, Le Sang Des Betes.
Chau had a love for fashion and design from an early age, "I remember when I was 12, tracing and cutting images of models out of fashion magazines and making paper dresses for them. I didn't professionally begin designing until college."
Her first line was a collaboration with a friend friend four years ago. We are Lucid Dreams was purely couture, but ended when she began the ready-to-wear line she has today. Trang says none of the pieces created for Le Sang des Betes, which translates to 'blood of the beasts', are her favorites; and anyone could tell.
While clicking through the catalog for the Spring 2009 collection, Swarm, I was astonished by the amount of detail and obvious thought put into the design. Filled with pale peach, grey, navy and royal blue, the line is cohesive and plays well into its title. The classic silhouettes are made modern with small construction changes, such as the addition of butter-knife pleats to bubble skirts. The ruffled sleeves added to the shift dress gives a sense of freedom and originality to a shape that has been used time and time again. What would have been a buttoned cap sleeved tee is now
a vest due to the drop of the sleeves to the underarm position, bringing uniqueness to a normal summer outfit. In all honesty, an onlooker would have a hard time picking a favorite as well.
"My interests in different visual media act only as starting points of inspiration in my design process. I rarely incorporate ideas from these genres directly as I'd rather reinterpret them from my own perspective." she explains.
Citing 19th century Gothic literature and filmmakers, including Rainer Fassbinder and David Cronenberg as inspiration on her site, Chau is skilled in recreating the aesthetics found within visual mediums. This is a skill I'm sure will continue to be her best asset as a young designer.
Chau hopes her line can be successful in the years to come, possibly adding menswear and a future plan for expanding to furniture design. At the moment, her dreams are coming true. Having publications such as W
WD and Nylon frequently feature the designer and her collections have helped to spread her line, which she explains is very important to her as a designer.
"[My day] is extremely busy! When you are still a young designer you have to balance the creativity with the business and that's a lot of work for anyone."
Though she considers herself an up and coming designer, she does give one piece of advice, to follow your gut instinct. A piece of advice I believe has helped her to become the lucid dream some are just beginning to believe in.
