For designer Lam Gia Khang, minimalism is a fashion language that helps women convey their inner feelings and values, which are expressed through extremely delicate cuts in their designs. Recently, the designer born in 1990 took time to sit down with Beautiful Magazine to share interesting stories about his creative journey to readers.
For designer Lam Gia Khang, minimalism is a fashion language that helps women convey their inner feelings and values, which are expressed through extremely delicate cuts in their designs. Recently, the designer born in 1990 took time to sit down with Beautiful Magazine to share interesting stories about his creative journey to readers.
Design inspiration can come from anywhere, but it’s important to know how you feel at that moment. Hello. When did you first realize you had to become a fashion designer? Or rather, I didn’t have a chance to notice it (laughs). When I was young, I was familiar with fashion-related jobs, so I did fashion like an instinct. I don’t want to say that I was born to be a designer because when I was born and grew up with fashion, fashion gradually penetrated into my bloodline from time to time. 
What inspired you to minimalism from the beginning to this day? When I started my career, I experimented with many styles. Then it occurred to me that what I like is more minimalistic. For me, minimalism is simple things that bring more emotions to the wearer than showing off. In other words, an outfit can be minimalist on the outside but hide a lot on the inside. I have never considered myself a minimalist designer because I believe fashion has its own language. Never use your language to describe it, let it tell its own story. Therefore, I never name my collection. When making BST too, I also don’t get inspiration from anywhere because inspiration can come at any time, the important thing is that I cherish my feelings at that time. 
By not following splendid designs, many textures or attachments but loyal to the streamlined design, are you afraid that customers will be boring or difficult to conquer Gen Z – the generation of customers who catch the trend? ultra-fast direction? When I chose this direction, I clearly defined my audience. The harsh reality is that I can’t design things to please everyone. Usually customers come to me, they have noticed the difference from my clothes. One more thing is that I always design a wardrobe for my clients, which means they can mix and match the looks of this season with previous seasons to create a variety of outfits. On the Gen Z side, it’s a different challenge. They are people with a rich background of fashion knowledge thanks to social networking platforms. I’m also pretty confident that my Gen Z customers are quite numerous. Whatever the era, Gen Z is not only young people with different fashion sense, there are also people who are passionate about minimalism. All in all, Gen Z is a challenge for me to develop more novel product lines in the future. 
After more than 10 years in the profession, what is the biggest achievement in your career? I think it’s something that I never get bored with what I’m doing. Even though I have been doing fashion, I still love it, still want to see the designs I make every day, not sell the soul of creativity for money (laughs). Minimalism does not make a woman gorgeous, but helps them to express their inner emotional values through clothes What is the image of the woman of GIA STUDIOS? Customers of GIA STUDIOS fall in the age group of 20 – 45 years old. First, I don’t use the word “elegant and sophisticated” to describe a woman who knows her best. My clothes help them express their personality and who they are. Second, they are women who love beauty. The beauty here is not only the things that show on the outside but also the inner beauty. In the end, they wear mine to a party, sure, they’re not the most gorgeous, they’ll be the most confident woman. That’s what makes women irresistible. 
Making gorgeous things so beautiful is hard but making simple things so delicate is even harder, how did you do it? When making gorgeous things, it’s obvious that the bad points are covered up, but when doing the simple things, how many flaws are easily revealed. That requires the designer to make each cut delicate, the lines to open and close so gracefully, or the cut to be the sharpest. 
When designing, I don’t sketch first. I would take from the archives the previous designs for the mannequin to wear, and then with the assistant to edit it as I envisioned in my head. Next is cutting, assembling the details and sewing into a draft. After that, I started editing and perfecting the design to make it more beautiful. 
Can you share a little bit about your future plans? In the near future, I will reposition the GIA STUDIOS brand in Vietnam. Actually, in the past 2 years, I have focused on foreign markets quite a lot. I want to show people my vision more clearly. Besides, I will develop the brand’s production apparatus to have more categories. Specifically, the direction GIA STUDIOS becomes a lifestyle brand, not just clothes. 
Honoring Vietnam’s cultural heritage through everyday wear with a combination of contemporary art and fashion It is not uncommon for designers to use artistic materials as inspiration for their designs, so can you share more about the highlights of the Ao Dai project inspired by contemporary art? Many people think that traditional or culturally attached clothes are used for holiday wear or souvenirs. But for me, Vietnamese culture is a great material to make fashionable clothes for women to wear every day. 
In your opinion, how is the interference between fashion and modern Vietnamese art expressed? In fact, there is always an invisible link between art and fashion. It all boils down to the concept of “a form of creating beauty”, that is, a form of creating beauty that only those inspired by art can perceive. Some Vietnamese designers also use Vietnamese art and express them through motifs, specific attachment details or unique innovative shapes… but your designs focus on minimalism, so what do you think? Can minimalism fully express the spirit of art? Why? I think the important thing is how we apply that cultural material. Minimalist clothing also has its own expression. For example, Le Pho’s famous painting of a woman wearing a white ao dai, I can feel the penetration of the dress through his skin-colored brush strokes. So, I made a tunic out of organza that consisted of many layers on top of each other. That’s how I perceive Le Pho’s painting on my designs (laughs). 
Thank you for your interesting sharing! Posts : To Hoang Bao
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