For Zang Toi, it all starts with color. Splashy hues like hot pink and turquoise theoretically should never be seen together, but the 28-year-old designer combines them with a flair and that belies his years.
This spring, for his second signature collection, he took his cues from another master of color, painter Yves Klein. “When you look at it today, his gold paintings are so contemporary.”
Born in Kelantan, Malaysia, Zang grew up surrounded by the kind of tropical apparel that’s inundated fashion: batiks, sarongs…yet, Zang resisted the impulse to do the obvious. He’s come up with an inventive and elegant collection of sporty knits and glamorous evening dresses: the line wholesales between $50 for a pair of cotton pull-on shorts to $400 for a silk overcoat. (“I like things that are very elegant and decadent,” he says.) That’s not to suggest, however, that he’s forsaken his roots. For buttons, Tang used a traditional Malaysian souvenir: orchids dipped in gold.
Zang left Malaysia in 1980, spent a year in Toronto and came to New York, where he studied at Parsons. During his junior year, he started working as a designer at Mary Jane Marcasiano. A stint at Shamask followed. In 1988, he struck out on his own with $200,000 from a silent investor. Sales for his first two seasons, resort and spring, are to hit $500,000.
