Young designer to compete at Asian contest final

The 12 designs in Water Drops capture the 12 different stages of water. “Each human being is like a water drop. Human beings in society are like water drops dissolving into an ocean,” said young designer Cong Khanh.

For his collection, Cong Khanh has been painstaking. The finest silk of Vietnam was chosen and ethnic minorities’ traditional dyeing techniques were resorted to. Born in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, Cong Khanh didn’t know the first thing about “fashion” until college.

His undergraduate years at Dong Nai Art College, however, were devoted to art. Cong Khanh took part in all art contests he happened to know about. Since then, the talented designer has amassed a quite impressive collection of prizes including the idea prize at the 2002 Vietnamese Collection Grand Prix and the second title at a fashion design contest held by the French Ministry of Industry in 2003.

The most precious prize to Cong Khanh, though, is that his family now wants to wear clothes designed by him. This is a considerable achievement considering that they didn’t wholeheartedly support his decision to walk down the fashion road.

After 3 years of working for some fashion brand names for experiences, Cong Khanh started his own brand called Citabella last year. His designs target middle-age women and office employees.

And on October 15 this year, Cong Khanh will compete against 9 other contestants from China, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore in the final of the AYFDC, a prestigious contest organized by the Singaporean Fashion Association with the aim to discover talented young designers in Asia.

(Source: VNN)