Inspirational and Inspired: Anna Fong

Anna Fong answered the studio door dressed in a black sweater tunic with leggings to match. A brown scarf casually hung from her neck. Her dark, curly hair, parted to one side rested right above her shoulders. As she walked over to the table she apologized for her flip-flops explaining that it was her “casual day.”

The far wall was decorated from top to bottom with a colorful array of neatly raveled thread carefully clustered by shades of color. Sounds of Spanish conversation quietly lingered from the back of the room where two women were working.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch.” Without hesitation she began cutting through a big piece of black fabric etched with white lines. “I hope you don’t mind if I work while you talk to me,” she said.                                          

She continued cutting while soft, soulful music played in the background. Her computer table was in an organized chaos. Pictures of friends were mounted behind the table next to a small picture of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and other images that Fong calls “inspirational collages.” Anna Fong was in her natural element as she balanced sporadic sketching and worked on a client’s order while conducting an interview all at the same time.

Fong, 30, has designed for a number of celebrities including designer, model and author, Kimora Lee Simmons, actress Nadine Velazquez, radio personality Bionce Foxx, and actress, singer, model and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.

Half Guatemalan and half Chinese, Fong always knew what she wanted to be. As a child growing up in Humboldt Park, Fong remembers making clothes for her Barbie’s in a method that her mother wasn’t completing fond of. I use to make clothes out my socks for my Barbie’s… especially the ones with the ruffles; I use to love to tear those up!”  She said. “I didn’t think of using fabric, I just thought, ‘“hey put a hole in my sock and it’s a dress.’”

Fong’s younger sister, Jessica Fong remembers the first outfit her sister created; it was for her eighth grade graduation. “It was a black and royal purple baby doll dress. Long sleeves if I remember correctly,” she said.

She continued to practice this creativity throughout her high school years. Lizeth Herrera, one of Fong’s friends from high school remembers always seeing her with a pencil and a notebook “sketching away.” “I always thought she was into animation, she would always draw these characters,” she said.

Jessica remembers Fong’s creativeness growing up as well. She said she always use to create great drawings and paintings and remembers one in particular. “There was this great oil pastel of a brown horse which I still remember to this day.  It was very realistic and charming,” she said

Shortly after, Fong’s drawings shifted into the fashion realm. Lizeth remembers being intrigued by her designs as she drew them. “I remember ball gowns and it was always things that were really out of the box and I would think to myself that’s beautiful,” Herrera said.

Herrera described Fong as never really interested in what was happening in the classrooms. She even remembers how she designed her own prom dress, a burgundy, form fitting dress.“ I was trying to like just get through chemistry and she was already sewing away,” she said.

Jessica remembers Fong’s disinterest in traditional schooling as well. “She did okay in school, but she was never really into it,” she said. “ She was really into her art classes.”

Described as a strong leader and a free spirit by friends and family, while the majority of her friends were on summer vacation, Fong spent her high school summers in sewing class. “She always knew what she wanted to do, she was getting a head start,” Herrera said.

A product of private schools, Fong went on to attend Columbia College Chicago and graduated in 2001. She started her own clothing line that included denim separates and jersey dresses and began previewing the line at local fashion shows. Despite these efforts; however, she knew something was lacking. “I just didn’t feel like I needed to be here at this moment in my life…I needed to get more experience,” she said.

Fong knew that she wanted to gain industry knowledge and she knew that she wanted to work for a designer to gain this experience. “I didn't know how to market my line and there were many components of the business that I still had to develop and learn more about, such as production, showrooms, tradeshows, networking, fabrics and sales,” she said.

Shortly after in 2002, Fong moved to New York and shacked up with her best friend there until she landed her first job at Chaps Ralph Lauren in the technical design department. “It was a great experience, I think it really developed me as a person and as a designer because I realized that there was still so much out there that I needed to learn,” she said as she paused to grab something from the end of the table and continued cutting.

She learned valuable experience in working in an environment that was constantly moving ahead, was competitive and was extremely challenging due to deadlines.

According to Fong, the environment offered freedom for creativity but maintained a corporate feel to it as well. “It made me have a thicker skin to things and made me learn how to work in that kind of environment.”

Fong returned to Chicago as her base because, as she joked, it is much easier to get square footage. Her studio that opened this year is located in the Chicago Arts District located near the Pilsen neighborhood.

Fong has participated in both years of The Chicago Latino Fashion Week. Herrera remembers how chaotic it was for Fong behind the scenes. In the midst of stylists trying to do her hair, Fong was sewing on a button that had fallen off one of her designs and trying to solve the problem of a model not being able to fit in her dress. In addition, one of the coordinators had asked Fong if she could quickly make a sketch so it could be displayed.

She described the scene, models running around naked chaos all around. “And there she was in the corner, drawing away,” Herrera said. “I never see her overwhelmed though…but it’s because she loves it so much.”

Fong continues to evolve her creativeness that she discovered as a young girl. Friends and co-workers often describe her work ethic as very busy but you would never tell by looking at Fong because they always see a calm and serene demeanor.

Her personal assistant, Barb Klikuszowian can attest to this.“ She is always working on something, she’s a very hard-working woman. Even when the pressure is on she makes it happen and never complains, she is always cool and collected,” she said.

Along with noticing Fong’s boisterous and non-stop work ethic on the outside, Herrera described Fong as quiet and nice but “internally loud.” “Some of us are vocally loud, she is so internally loud that it reflects on her designs and on her passion for what she does,” Herrera said.

Along with gaining inspiration and passion from her diverse heritage, old films and photographs and the curves of women’s bodies, Fong finds a lot of her inspiration from confident women like herself. 

“They inspire me because of their confidence, the way they perceive the world, their aura,” she said. A confident and curvaceous woman, Rita Hayworth and the 1940’s inspired Fong’s upcoming Spring 2009 collection which includes flirty day dresses and evening cocktail dresses.

Although there are many specific things that inspire Fong, she is very aware of her surroundings which enables her to be inspired everyday. “She’s probably got an etch-a-sketch going on in her mind,” Herrera said. She can remember countless times when her and Fong would be in the middle of a conversation and Fong would daze off. “I would say, Anna are you listening!”  Fong would reply, “I’m sorry, I was just thinking of a design.”

Fong has been referred to in many of her bios as an up and coming sensation but she realizes that she needs to stop and take note of her success. “ When you’re in it so deep you don’t have a moment to really appreciate it, so I make myself take that time to really look at what’s happening and really feel it,” she said. “When you see your designs on TV or someone wearing your designs…the moment is always surreal.”  
 

As much as she tries to appreciate the development of her career she often finds herself in a tug of war with being overwhelmed in surreal moments and then in the very next, “dumbing the moment down” by saying anyone could do that. “I want a moment to feel everything that’s been happening; I don’t know when that moment will come,” she said with scissors in her hand.

 Along with a new line, Anna is in the process of trying out for the next season of Project Runway and will be featured in the January issue of Latina Magazine and the March issue of Lucky Magazine. As for staying in Chicago, Anna said; “I’m here right now, we’ll see what happens. I’d love for Chicago to remain my base though.” She refuses to own a car to insure that she won’t be “bound to stay here or limit herself to possibilities.” She wants to be able to get up, take her stuff and go.

She told Herrera, “I want to be everywhere, "I want to dress everyone, I want the world to look classy.”

 (Images provided by chicagolatinofashion.com/ designers.php & clutchmagonline.com/.../ ones-to-watch/anna-fong/)