The Expressionist

The Expressionist

For Designer Colleen Quen, each piece is an art, an inspiration, and an expression of herself

BY NEHA SURADKAR

A multi-faceted personality, an amalgamation of three cultures, a couturier, an artist, a dancer, a musician, a healer—these are just some words to describe one of California’s most remarkable women, Colleen Quen, the founder of Colleen Quen Couture.

Born on the quiet and peaceful island of Alameda, California, Quen is a third or fourth generation American-born Chinese. She feels proud to be born in the US and is equally proud of her eastern roots. Fashion was a part of Quen’s life from a very young age. She considers her mother to be her first art and fashion teacher.

Her mother used to create outfits for her special occasions, and Quen would love selecting the fabrics and colours, hence developing an eye for style from a very young age.

She would sneak into her mother’s fabric room and be mesmerized by all the textures, colours, and patterns. As a child, she would spend time drawing, painting, embroidery, and playing piano and flute.

She graduated in Computer Science and business while excelling in dance forms like ballet and modern dances. She trained in ice skating and was a freestyle ice skater for almost a decade.

While into ice skating, she started designing costumes for the same and decided to pursue a degree in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Management (FIDM), San Francisco.

Born and brought up in the States, having a beautiful eastern legacy and having mastered French Couture, Quen’s forte lies in bringing all the three cultures into her designs. With her study of French couture, she learned to be a true artist.

She studied the human body with perfection and loved to create outfits for this artform. To her, French couture is all about perfection, elegance, and precision. Mixing all three makes the aesthetics spiritual.

Quen enjoys this intermixing in her designs, whether evening wear, paintings, sculpture, or Chinese watercolor painting. One of her favorite designs, “The Butterfly Dream”, has an elegant vintage look, French couture cut, and precise ancient butterfly pattern exhibited in Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

325Nature is her main inspiration, be it for her couture or paintings. Elements of nature, such as butterflies and flowers, are omnipresent in her designs. She is especially fascinated with butterflies, their colours, and the idea of metamorphosis, which also appears in her logo. She also derives her inspiration from paintings and architectural designs, being inspired by colours, silhouettes, shapes, and patterns.

Read more at https://issuu.com/rareluxuryliving/docs/troora_san_francisco_2021_pages/320