Zang Toi

Introduction

In recent years, Malaysia was a hit issue and has become famous in world wide. Of course, this is not only because of our economies become stronger than past times, But because of the contribution of Malaysian in the international stage that has proved how well of the success of Malaysia. We have international singers, fashion designers, professionals and successful entrepreneurs, such as Citi Norhalizah, Zang Toi, our previous Prime Minister---Dato Sri Dr Mahathir, Lim Kong Tong who are the famous and successful people that can influence the image of Malaysia in the international stage.

The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate and explain the role and contribution of Malaysians in international and Malaysia stage. We had decided to choose one of the famous fashion designers in the world that is Zang Toi. We choose Zang Toi as ours topic of this assignment because he is one of the top people in the fashion designer industry and he had contributed to Malaysia and benefited Malaysian.

Background

Zang Toi was born in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, on June 11, 1961 from a seven-sibling family; he is the youngest son in the family. His parents were owners of a grocery store. Toi's secondary school years were spent at SM Abdul Samad in Petaling Jaya where he contemplated becoming a painter, interior designer or architect before becoming interested with fashion design. He left his native Malaysia at the age of eighteen, and via Toronto, landed in New York at age of nineteen. There he attended Parsons School of Design and worked as a part-time assistant to the designer Mary Jane Marcasiano and Ronaldus Shamask.

When graduation from Parsons School of Design, Toi became the top assistant to Marcasiano, he treating her business as if his own and acquiring business acumen not only of fashion design but also of the production side of the business. After 4 years of apprenticeship, he finally opened his own fashion house in year of 1989 in United States.

Contributions:

Zang Toi was in New York since he was eighteen years old. He can be treated as a brave and ambitious man as Malaysia at that time was still not a very popular in design industry. He was graduated from Parsons School of Design which is located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Later, he apprenticed with Mary Jane Marcasiano and Ronaldus Shamask.

After four years of apprenticeship, Zang Toi was come out a series of modest collection of bright sarongs, strong suits and regal dresses, he opened his first own workshop in 1989 till today he is known as a color ardentist; a designer whose command of vivid hues is natural and easy, sophisticated and sensuality. Furthermore Zang Toi has helped to lead to the forward era of contemporary late 90's design with his trademark colors and his timeless styling. His creations has pamper today's woman with an uncompromising, style, glamour and romance.

In the 1991, Zang Toi won of the Mouton- Cadet Young Designers Award, which was established by Baroness Philippine De Rothschild to recognize new talent, and that year he was 29 years old. To compete, designers must have been in business no more than three years, and must have shown a collection in the past years. The runners-up were Pamela Dennis, C. D. Greene, Gemma Kahng, Michael Leva, Chritian Francis Roth and John Scher. The award -- an inscribed crystal Lalique plate -- was presented to Mr. Toi by the baroness on Thursday night after a showing of 10 designs by each finalist at the Fashion Institute of Technology. His winning styles included a red denim jacket worn with a miniskirt made of a traditional Malaysian batik, neat linen luncheon suits, and glamorous evening suits of pastel faille and lace.

In recent years, Zang Toi won most awards of distinction was presented by Mark Green, the Public Advocate for New York City, for his artistic contributions and achievements. This award is given to foreign individuals who have made a significant contribution to life in the United States; sharing the spotlight with Zang Toi are Daisy Exposito-Ulla, the chairman and CEO of the Bravo Group, and Fred H. Lang, the hammer president and CEO of Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.

In March of 1997, Zang Toi received Knighthood from Sultan of Malaysia. After this year since, Zang Toi has cultivated his business into an international success story. He is a favorite of style arbiters including Sharon Stone, Ivana Trump, Hazelle Goodman and more. Be it the House of Zang Toi signature collection or the "Z" collection, his moderately priced bridge line, Zang Toi's creations are original, feminine and simply exquisite, and also lower priced that two collections manufactured and sold in Malaysia.

A theme of "We Care. We Cure" charity T-shirt Fall Show on February 5, 2005 in Charleston which Zang Toi joined forces with Dr. Marcelo Hochman and friends of The Hemangioma Treatment Foundation to help children from all over the world.

That is really meaningful for these pitiable children and they desire caring, love and concern from society and world as well. As a reason, one in ten children is born with a vascular birthmark, or hemangioma. Thirty percent of these need some form of treatment either by laser or surgery. We can say that Hemangiomas are the most common form of tumor in infancy. There are thousands of children in the US and around the world who will grow up with vascular birthmarks that seriously disfigure their facial features. Medical procedures exist to help almost all of these children, but gaps in insurance coverage, a lack of physician knowledge, a lack of access to qualified specialists, and a waiting list of children who need help means that some children will go through childhood needlessly disfigured. No child deserves this fate!

Zang Toi was devoting his patience and kind to help in collecting fund or donation from public by the way of premiered a beaded T-shirt for his fall collection. And the big portion of the show proceeds will be donated to The Hemangioma Treatment Foundation which is dedicated to changing the faces of children with their motto "We Care, We Cure". There is really a warm way that he did through his creative design talent which is just for these unfortunate lovely children.

While majority of Zang Toi design work or business are located in U.S, nevertheless he never forgot his root and also