Unit F Designers' Support

Thái-Công -
My Parents

An homage to fashion, photography and life.

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© Andreas Bitesnich
KlausEngelhorn 20/22 and Unit F büro für mode will presented the photo series THÁI-CÔNG - MY PARENTS from 5 March to 19 April 2003. For this project, internationally acclaimed photographers took pictures of Thái-Công’s charismatic parents in various settings, dressed in creations by well-known labels, from Louis Vuitton to Vivienne Westwood.
 
The fashion stylist Thái-Công persuaded 28 well-known international photographers (including the Austrian Andreas H. Bitesnich) to photograph his parents in the latest creations of world-famous fashion designers and labels. The clothes and accessories were an integral part of these artworks. They no longer represented merely a certain label and the lifestyle it evoked; instead, the new context in each of the photos and the irony of the composition altered the effect and gave new meaning to the clothes.
 
Thái-Công’s Chinese father (93) and his Vietnamese mother (56) have led turbulent lives. Their charismatic, life-worn faces built a fascinating contrast to fashion and its glamorous representations. Thái-Công’s parents inspired the photographers, who were accustomed to working with perfect bodies and perfect faces, to supreme creations. Thirty outstanding works of art resulted from the photo shoots. These works broke up the symbiosis of fashion, youth and the worship of beauty, and paved the way for a new aesthetic dimension in fashion and photography.
 
Thái-Công
was born in 1972 in Saigon, Vietnam. He moved to Germany with his parents in 1981. He studied fashion design for four years. At present, Thái-Công lives and works in Hamburg. As a freelance fashion stylist he works for well-known photographers, companies, advertising agencies and magazines. For his latest project, he travelled through Vietnam for one month with his parents. In search of their and thus his own identity, he wanted to portray the country where his parents had lived and where he himself was born.

TH_I-C_NG_MYPARENTS_c_JoachimBaldauf_Gucci_Cover
© Joachim Baldauf

TH_I-C_NG_MYPARENTS_c_LeifSchmodde_burberry
© Leif Schmodde

TH_I-C_NG_MYPARENTS_c_Portrait_Th_i-Cong_by_Giovanni_Castell
© Giovanni Castell
Service Portfolio
Exhibitions

Exhibition Dates
5 March - 19 April  2003
 
Opening
Tue 4 March 4 2003, 7 pm
 
Location
Unit F büro für mode
Gumpendorfer Strasse 56
1060 Vienna
 
Weblinks
  1. Thái-Công
  2. Klaus Engelhorn