taking care of business
Xiao-Yin Byrom’s Journey to Tang’s Story and photos by Amy Falkofske
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iao-Yin Byrom, or Tang as she’s affectionately known, was born into the business of tailoring. Now she is the successful owner of Tang’s Alterations – Bridal/Bespoke in Manassas, the area’s go-to shop for alterations and bridal gowns.
College Dreams When Byrom first set out on her own, she didn’t have dreams of being a tailor. She wanted a college degree, even though women in her family were not encouraged to go to college. In fact, after one year of community college in California, her mother wanted her to quit college and move to Montgomery, Alabama, to help her run her tailoring business. Her mother even told her she wasn’t college material. But Byrom fought that notion. “My dream is to finish college. I want to get a college degree,” she told her mother Byrom’s goal was to prove that women could go to college too and she wanted to be the first one in her family. “I didn’t care what degree it was in, I just wanted that piece of paper,” she said. Eventually, her brother, Tang, who was also going to college at the time, stepped in and volunteered to come home and help with the family business. Byrom remembers exactly what he said. “You know what? Stop this! I’m not college material. I’m coming home. I don’t want to go to school anymore. Just go ahead and let sister go to school. I will just come home, and I will take care of the family business,” he said. Byrom ended up getting a degree in art and went on to be an art teacher, but she was shocked many years later after her brother had passed away, to find out from one of his friends what he had sacrificed for her to go to college. He was studying architecture and was one of the top students when he suddenly decided one night to pack up and leave school.
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September 2020 prince william living
Xiao-Yin Byrom (Tang), Owner of Tang’s Alterations-Bridal/Bespoke
