Some of my beautiful friends have been wearing Zang Toi’s
couture creations for years and I met him many times when I go to NYC for dinner at friends’ homes and at parties throughout the years. I like the clothes he designed for red carpet celebrities as well as for my friends and I am always impressed of his confidence and keen sense of beauties and styles. He is also a fun guy to be with and his friendliness makes people feel warm and happy.
This year is OCA WHV’s 30th Anniversary. Since I was a founder and served as the Founding President of that organization 30 years ago, and I also served as the Chairperson of its initial Dynamic Achiever Award (DAA) events in the early 80s, I agreed to take part in helping the 2010 capable Board Members with the planning of the 30th Anniversary and DAA Gala which will be held at the Double Tree Hotel in Tarrytown, NY on Saturday, November 13th.
The nomination Committee and the OCA WHV Board made an early decision to name Zang Toi as one of the DAA recipients this year. He is the first fashion designer to be a recipient of DAA by OCA. The selection was based on a set of high standard criteria and among the former Dynamic Achiever Award recipients are: Julie Chan (CBS news anchor and host, Big Brother), David Ho, MD (forefront of AIDS research), David Chiu, MD (world-renowned surgeon for reconstructive surgery of the hand and face), and Ang Lee (award winning film director). Because we know that Zang Toi has very busy schedules, on behalf of the Gala Committee I sent him an email on 2/14 informing him about our invitation and asking him to mark Saturday 11/13 on his calendar. Zang graciously accepted the invitation because it is for a good cause.
Couple of weeks ago, we learned that Zang Toi trunk show and his personal appearance at Nordstrom on Wednesday 6/16. So I asked a few friends to shop there and to meet Zang Toi, as well as joining me for a casual dinner at Central Seafood in honor of Zang the same night.
I arrived at Nordstrom at 11 AM, my friends Helen and Gina were already there looking very happy. Some beautiful pieces of Zang Toi’s 2010 Fall Collection were nicely in display at the Collectors area. I just love the glamorous design,the high quality of the workmanship as well as the feel of the luxurious fabric of his collection.
The Collectors area was very lively and all the dressing rooms were occupied. Zang was busy going from room to room greeting his customers. It was a great feeling seeing that Gina looks so beautiful with every piece she tried. The professional model Debra is exceptionally tall and beautiful. My friend Gina also looks stunning in all those gowns she tried.
Zang is always busy working. In the above picture, he was sketching a wedding gown for one of his clients. I saw a tiny woman tried on a gown and within minutes she placed an order for herself (size 0) for a $17,000 evening gown. Then of course Zang also designs for women of size 20 as well. While I was there it seems that every woman walked out of there very happy after placing orders of 5 figures each. I heard that one order was $90,000. No doubt about it that Zang is a dynamic achiever in fashion design field. In addition to his hard work and know how, he is innovative, and he has a very sound business mind. His products make his customers so happy. Zang is not just a dynamic achiever, he is also a champion of excellence.
To show you one of his happy customers, I share with you a blog that Gina wrote:
http://www.sinovision.net/blog/index.php?act=details&id=35091&bcode=zhuomaWe had great time with Zang Toi yesterday so did he. A very successful day all around. Dinner was relaxing yet fun,and food was good. 12 of us (David & Peggy Chen, Keen & Meow Yee, K.S. & Gina Liu, Zang & his assistants Si Si and Na Na, and Model Debra) but Dr. Xiaochun Luo (President of OCA WHV) could not stay for dinner, because she had a conference call from Asia; she is the CSO (chief science officer)of Avon with world-wide responsibilities. However, we got a picture of her (right) with Zang and Meow (past president of OCA WHV and a brilliant manager of IBM (left.)
We had 车 螺芥菜汤 (Conch Soup) at Central Seafood last night. It was delicious and on the house. We also had glutenous rice wrap to celebrate the 端午节 Dragon Boat Day too. And Central Seafood did a good job on the dishes I ordered.
I was a very happy host and it was a fun and enjoyable evening.
Thank you all!
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