Fashion Meets a Vietnamese American- Chloe Dao

Lights! Camera! Action! The lights come to a dim, the background music is pumped, and the show finally begins. Six-feet talk Amazonian figures catwalk down the Project Runway’s New York Fashion runway show – here was where a new fashion house name  began to make its way into fashion world. This time it wasn’t Dior, Versace, or the likes of Dolce and Gabanna, but rather a simple collection named, “Chloe Dao.”  This was the name of Project Runway’s season two winner and her win meant one significant thing –  the fashion industry was about to extend it’s welcome to a new Vietnamese-American fashion designer.

As countless inspiring individuals, Chloe Dao, made her mark in a highly competitive industry through unrelenting dedication and passion.  Growing up, her love for Fashion began with the simple “haves” and “not-haves” clothes when she first came to Houston, Texas. Unable to afford the desired clothing, she resolved to find a way to infuse her own style through creative intuition. Inspiration came from shifting thrift store attires and reworking them to bring about her personal sense of style. Dao’s first original was her senior year prom dress. Over time this process refined her design aestethic and lead her to emerge as a impressive contestant amongst 15 other designers in the reality television series called Project Runway. In the midst of renown Project Runway judges, Designer Michael Kors, Fashion editor Nina Garcia, and Supermodel Heidi Klum, Dao emerged as one of the three finalists, and took her collection onto the prestige floors of New York Fashion Runway only to win.

Being the winner of PR2, she received $100,000 seed money to use toward her design business, a 2007 Saturn Sky Roadster, a spread in Elle magazine, and a mentorship with Banana Republic [1]. Dao was featured on NBC’s Today and Access Hollywood, CNN’s American Morning, ABC’s The View and E!’s Inside Edition. Major national and international magazines such as People, Time, US Weekly, Forbes, Forbes Asia, Star, WWD, and New York Times covering her road to success [2]. With much success at hand, Chloe Dao’s story began with an experience similar to many second generation Vietnamese-Americans. Dao was born in Paskse, Laos, but in 1979  emigrated to the United States with her parents and seven siblings to escape the war conflict. She along with her sisters were encouraged to pursue careers in medicine or law, but Dao was uninterested in these professions. She boldly followed a career that has since been her childhood passion. At the age of 22 she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a patternmaking degree only eleven years later to become the 2nd winner of Project Runway.

Now Dao is a recognized fashion entrepreneur with a sold-out 13 piece Simply. Chloe Dao. collection exclusive to QVC, a full line collection Dao Chloe Dao launched recently in 2008, and a partner of Nuo Tech bags and travel gear.  Chloe’s Dao’s story is not only be an encouragement to the Vietnamese-American community across the globe, but rather an encouragement for every immigrant who aspires to fulfill their American dream. Dao has taught and shown us all to boldly follow and radically pursue our passion and in 2008, Dao stood in the presence of 20,000 graduates and guest of Houston Community College’s Class as a commencement speaker to share exactly this. It is the stories of such successful individuals as Chloe Dao, Natalie Tran, Maggie Q, and Michelle Phan that make our hairs stand up on it’s ends giving us the hope that there are boundless possibilities and directions in which one may choose to reach one’s vision. For our designer here, Chloe Dao has chosen to find her boundless possibilities in the realm of creativity – Art.

Chloe Dao – Bridal Collection Fall 2009