Caymans Post

A world within. A state apart.
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Meet Bach Mai, an American Couturier in Making

Meet Bach Mai, an American Couturier in Making

Bach Mai grew up in Houston as the son of Vietnamese immigrants. His American dream is to create a couture atelier in New York.


Bach Mai has electric blue hair and Vietnamese immigrants for parents. He is not a couturier of the old school, but he doesn’t lack for atelier experience. A graduate of Parsons, he was assisting in the first studio at Oscar de la Renta during the fall 2013 season that John Galliano created a capsule collection for the New York designer. Not long after, with a master’s degree from Paris’s Institut Français de la Mode, Mai went to work for Galliano as he established himself at Maison Margiela.

“I fell in love with couture at a really young age because of John,” Mai says. “And it was always my dream to come back and be an American designer.” Mai’s debt to Galliano and his years at Margiela is clear in the bias draping of both a silver lurex panné velvet halter dress and a black flocked dot tulle and lace shawl collar godet gown. The curves of Cristobal Balenciaga and the mid-century photography of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon that captured them are obvious influences on the sculptural skirt volumes of his strapless and racer-back party dresses, but equally, he credits the pink frock Carrie Bradshaw famously faints in at Lincoln Center in Sex and the City. “That’s something that stuck with me as a kid,” he remembers.



Mai was a teenager in Houston when he began making clothes for his cousin and friends. In Texas in the high season Today, he’s 32, and he’s building his new label with the backing of Hurel, the imminent French textile supplier, in an arrangement that allows him to use materials “that young designers could only dream of.” A corded lace with a silver crystal holofoil treatment whose effect he describes as “intergalactic courtesan” stands out, as do the fil coupé organza jacquards based on the works Triumph of Galatea and the Green Paintings by his favorite artist Cy Twombly.



His bride wears another Hurel fil coupé organza, this one in white and matte silver, with Chantilly lace accents. “The most beautiful part of couture is the relationship between client and designer,” Mai says. “That’s why I want the heart of the collection to be these special made-to-order pieces.” Complementing the made-to-measure offerings are a sculpted-back bomber in silk moiré, boxy blazers and tear-away basketball shorts in transparent organza, and little moiré peplum tops and leather pencil skirts, a selection of which are now available by preorder on his website. Though they’re off-the-rack, they retain his couture’s unabashed femininity and irreverent glamour. The clothes are entirely made in New York.

“We do have the know-how here, the craftsmanship,” Mai says. “To help keep that alive and to build that back up is beautiful.” From his midtown studio he’s putting plans together to take his debut collection on the road. Texas friends are planning “couture Tupperware parties.” Back home in Houston, Mai’s parents are cheering him on. “My dad’s an engineer,” he says. “I learned from him how to break apart how things work. That’s why I’m so still fascinated by construction and how to put things together.” Step-by-step, his plan is to build the next American couture house.


Newsletter

Related Articles

Caymans Post
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×