Siu Wong - I was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong in April of 1970 and emigrated to The United States in July of 1971 and have lived in Brooklyn, New York ever since. I am the youngest of four with 2 sisters and a brother. My parents worked in occupations typical for Asians. My father was a chef at a Chinese restaurant and my mother was a seamstress working in garment factories, better known as “sweatshops”. My mother had an industrial sewing machine in the house and would always bring work home and wouldn’t you know it, we all had to work. Eventually she taught me how to sew. I didn’t realize it was going to pay off in my future. Growing up I always had a desire to draw, paint, write with markers only (seriously), crafty projects and used a lot of colors. I suppose I had a knack for all things creative. In school I participated in art contests, took woodshop classes and jewelry making (which I enjoyed least for some reason). During the summer of my early high school years I would go to Central Park with my sketch book, colored pencils and markers, sometimes even water paint and brushes, pick the scene of choice to paint or draw that particular day, sit on the grass and do my thing.

School was never my thing, so I would gallivant around the city from store to store window shopping; admiring all the beautiful types of furniture designs and available colors & fabrics, what’s in style for men & women, the fabrics and colors of the season, looking at what style of shoes people are wearing, what’s selling in stores, bags people are carrying, accessories in the market and all the while keeping a visual memory of all the creativity behind each design, thinking “I can do that, but differently”.As I got older, I lost the desire to draw and paint and fell into the world of design utilizing more of my visual creativity. My first taste of design was at a textile company working with the design department with choosing colors, patterns and fabrication, keeping a library of all design patterns for there collection of shower curtains, bed spreads and table cloths. I then moved on to purchasing fabric for a uniform manufacturer, a yarn buyer for Ralph Lauren women’s wear, and Emanuel Ungaro, took a turn and freelanced with a friend as a visual merchandiser assistant working with furniture and then went back to the garment industry as a Production Manager working with design from start to finish, paying attention to details of all garments which entails fabric, color, artwork, trims and fit to overseeing production until delivery is completed.

About 4 years ago, I designed and made myself a wallet with pictures from a magazine of pin up girls that I liked. I had situated each picture just where I wanted it. From that day on, I received compliments and comments about my wallet from everyone I had shown it to; from friends to every cashier I had to take my wallet out for. I took that as I sign to really put thought into my own business of designing and making unique, one of kind wallets. About a little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with 2 herniated discs and the worst case of sciatica which left me in excruciating pain and out of commission from my daily active life. Pain killers weren’t helping and I needed to keep my mind off of the pain so I decided it was time to put my creativity to work. I collected many types of magazines, flipping through the pages and visually designing as I went along, tearing out pages of varies pictures for many themes I had in mind. I was on a roll and made 80 wallets in one week all by myself. This does not include flipping through the magazines and tearing out pages. This entails hand laminating which takes the most time since it has to be precise as you don’t want bubbles to appear, then the cutting of each piece and then sewing all the pieces together. The name of my label is my name in Chinese, well, at least that’s what my family calls me….a-lan….part of my full name Siu Lan, but only the Lan with a Chinese syllable…hence, a-lan J. My themes includes vodka ads (for a good friend who always has a bottle), pages from a story of John Lennon, pictures of varies pieces from artist Jean Michel Basquiat, graffiti ads, and the one that a good friend flaunts around, ads of parties from the Winter Music Conference 2004, all of which he attended. I enjoy working with many different ads and patterned paper as I find it challenging to see what I can come up with in the end. Sometimes I’m happy with the result, but as they say, you are your own worst critic. I rather hear your comments. I sell through word of mouth, street fairs and email contact for now. I am currently working on my website which I hope to finish and get it up and running by the end of this year. Working full time doesn’t allow me to put the time I would like, unfortunately.

Contact Siu:   info@a-lannyc.com or demandamiami@yahoo.com