The article celebrates the ‘ABCs’ (American-born Chinese designers) as Peter Som dubs them, including Som, Thakoon, Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, Richard Chai et al. I hadn’t thought there was a common thread other than their ethnicity and I was right. Aesthetically, their styles are different but their Asian heritage does come into play. As Anna Sui puts it, there was an exclusion effect of Chinese immigrants being limited to a certain number of industries like restaurants and garment making so it’s no wonder many of the ABCs were from dressmaking families. Derek Lam’s grandparents had a bridal business in San Francisco and growing up he watched the seamstresses wrap fabric around chopsticks to create spaghetti straps. Love it!