Vintage Joy

violin and piano at age four. Unfortunately Joy’s mother suffered a back injury when the girls were four and seven so girls were very independent from early on. During this time they were entertained by old movie classics such as Gone with the Wind, Sound of Music, Rebel without a Cause, so Joy was influenced by the culture of classic films and went on to enjoying the fashion and interior design of studio era and film noir classics on her own. In 1989 the family moved to the bay area where Joy’s father built his medical career in San Francisco. Since Joy started braiding in her crib at age one and keen on his daughters taking over his practice, Joy’s father encouraged her to work with her hands since he believed it would be good practice for her as a surgeon later on. But Joy really explored every route of craft; from jewelry making, crocheting, knitting, and felting to sewing. Very early on, fashion became an identity outlet for Joy to differentiate herself from her twin sister. They were often identified as the “cute twins” so Joy wanted to create her own individual identity and would re-design clothes into something of her own. Her mother had kept much of the her own tailored clothes from the sixties and seventies, so Joy and her sister often played dress up with these well made clothes. Because they were physically late bloomers, they loved that their mothers clothing would fit them in areas that needed to be accentuated. This gave Joy the idea of wearing clothes that was better fit, and tailored to one’s body, rather than feeling as though she wasn’t adequate in fitting to the latest fashions. She no longer felt stuck in the world of “cute twin” but wearing tailored clothing made her feel like a confident young woman. Successful in her academics, she got accepted into many of the University Of California Schools as well as a few prestigious schools in the South and Midwest; including Northwestern. She decided to go to the University of California Davis, due to her curiosity in their Fashion Design Program. Entertaining Pre-Med for over a year, Joy’s mother finally encouraged Joy to apply for the Fashion Program knowing Joy was constantly distracted in her biology classes and creating graphic designs for headscarves out of the Organic Chemistry modules she saw in class. Once she got accepted into the program, she became a leader and innovator in many of her classes. She got accepted into an internship with Anna Sui during her last quarter of school and left for New York right after graduation. She then interned 4 days of the week and worked for the high end boutique; Intermix the other three days where she became competitively well versed in both retail sales and the intense world of Ready to Wear Fashion. EDUCATION/APPRENTICESHIPS/INTERNSHIPS/CAREER:
Joy excelled at the University of California Davis Design Program with a major in Fashion Design and a minor in Textiles and Marketing. She was an influential student and a favorite to many of her professors as they saw and believed in the passion she had to make her designs and visions renowned. When the Fashion Program was undergoing many changes and there wasn’t enough funds in the program to do their end of the year Fashion Show, Joy pulled together student resources and raised ten thousand dollars to do the show independently from the program. The students and teachers all applauded her with her efforts to reignite the program and today the students and graduates of the Design Program reap the benefits of Joy’s resilience and determination to showcase the talent of her graduating class. Joy was rewarded the Outstanding Senior Recognition Award, the Design Departmental Citation for Outstanding Performance Award, the Outstanding Contribution to Design Award, the Adams Award for Student Leadership, the KAPLAN Award for Excellence in Student Teamwork, and the Sacramento Center for Textiles Arts Scholarship. PERSONAL LIFE:
While struggling early on to find her identity growing up as a fraternal twin, Joy made fashion her unspoken outlet for full self expression. From then she knew she would make a name for herself and express with the rest of the world the honor in being a woman, to catch people’s attention when walking down the street or entering a room by sharing the secret of fit and quality of her designs. Joy is now known for her individualism, compassion for building a successful Fashion Design community in San Francisco, dynamic energy and for bringing communities together. She has met many of her closest friends on the dancefloor, listening to soul, Britpop, indie rock, 80’s, hiphop and live jazz. Most of her best friends share similar passions for traveling, dance, culture and often speak a second language. FOR SALE:
Predominantly having designed custom pieces for her clients, Joy has built an international presence ranging from New York, LA, San Francisco, Beijing and Shanghai. However having just launched her wholesale Fall 2012 Collection in March of 2012, Joy primarily sells her designs online through her website and via virtual storefronts: Etsy and Shoppista. She has collaborated with a few specialty boutiques in San Francisco: including pop-ups at Department Seventeen and Mission Statement. She has also been a part of several Indie Tradeshows including Indie Mart, Chillin’ Productions, Urban Air Market and the Divisadero Art Walk. Vintage Joy has shown at LA’s Focus Tradeshow and will be attending Magic in August as well as Designers and Agents and Capsule in New York in September. INTERESTING FACTS:
Growing up as first generation Chinese in New Orleans and then in Marin County set the Fan sisters apart, but Joy and her sisters maintained a strong sense of Chinese culture and the Mandarin language. They never felt outcasted, but merely fortunate to have a strong history of culture and a beautiful language they could communicate to their parents. They all speak it fluently still and had an interest in traveling to the motherland at a very young age. They have since been back several times to study and visit leisurely including having attended the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony in August of 2008. Joy loves language and though took Spanish for 4 year in highschool and can get by, she would like to become more fluent and add Italian, French and Portuguese into her linguistic library. She has always wanted to live an international lifestyle of homes in many countries and mainly fashion cities around the world. The landmarks for her are: Paris, Milan, Barcelona, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Joy's mother who was a classically trained violinist, pianist and singer wanted to attribute her passion for music to the "Sound of Music" and brilliantly named her daughters middle names: "Do-Do" for the eldest (Do, a deer, a female deer), "Re-Re" for Joy the middle child (Re, a drop of golden sun) and finally "Mi-Mi" for the youngest (Mi, A name I call myself). Joy was born with very little blood in her body with twin sister Jill. Though she was nearly 7lbs and her sister was nearly 6lbs, her veins were empty of blood so she was unable to cry when she was birthed and she had to stay incubated for four days. Her father stayed with her for 96 hours, never leaving her side, and saw her pale face finally gain some color. And after the dreary four days of blood transfusions and monitored health, her colorful cheeks turned into a blissful smile, so they named her Joy. Joy is very appreciative of being given this second chance at life when she came into the world and is reminded by how precious life is every day through the connectivity of her community, her friends and her family. She strives to be a mentor to youth, for children to understand the power of identity through what they wear, that clothing is an extension of their character and can showcase the type of person they are, and strive to be. It is a very powerful tool to gain a sense of self-respect, manners, self confidence and pride. More importantly, she wants women around the world to know of this power as well…. It isn’t just about consumerism, and conforming to the latest trend, but it is about identifying with a brand and wearing it because it is fitted and well made and brings out the classiest moment in your everyday life.