In her debut collection for Shanghai Tang, Victoria Tang-Owen brings her late father David Tang’s storied fashion brand “Back to the Roots,” with a vibrant collection for the next generation of tastemakers
On the second floor of Shanghai Tang’s recently renovated store in Hong Kong's Central district is Victoria Tang-Owen, who is scurrying back and forth across the lacquered floors, perusing her first collection before it is revealed to the public.
She’s eager, and mostly elated, as her autumn/winter fashion line has been a year in the making, following her appointment as Shanghai Tang’s creative director in October 2018.
While Tang is determined to present the label to a new generation of tastemakers, it’s also been a full-circle moment for the entrepreneur, as she found herself following in the footsteps of her larger-than-life father, the late David Tang. In 1994, he created Shanghai Tang and launched China’s first global luxury fashion brand.
Memory Lane
During her photoshoot, she recalls spending her childhood with her younger brother, Edward, at the original Shanghai Tang store inside the Pedder Building.
“It was a second home to us. I remember we’d be at the Pedder store after school, sitting around the tailoring room waiting for our dad to be done working,” Tang-Owen says. “He was so specific with everything he wanted. I remember looking at him doing all these things thinking, ‘How and why are you doing all of this?’”
She wasn’t able to answer that question by the time David passed away in 2017. Shanghai Tang, which was then owned by Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont, went through a series of acquisitions, being sold to Italian businessman Alessandro Bastagli and Hong Kong firm Cassia Investments in 2018. By the end of the year, Shanghai Tang had been sold to Shanghai-based private equity firm Lunar Capital, which appointed Tang-Owen to lead the brand’s creative team.
“I was actually very surprised when [Lunar Capital] approached me,” Tang-Owen says.
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