Carla Maria Fong Leng Tsang (Rotterdam, 13 August 1937) is a Chinese-Dutch

fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

. Fong Leng started a fashion boutique in 1969 in the Drugstore at the

Nieuwendijk Nieuwendijk is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is a part of the municipality of Altena, and lies about 8 km south of Gorinchem. History The village was first mentioned in 1468 as Nyewendijck, and means "new dike". Nieu ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. In 1971 she moved to larger premises at the

P.C. Hooftstraat The P.C. Hooftstraat is a shopping street in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 1876 it was named after Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (1581–1647), a Dutch historian, poet and playwright. The street is located in the '' stadsdeel'' Amsterdam Oud-Zuid an ...

and called it ''Studio Fong Leng''. She is mostly known for her extravagant cloak dresses. Fong Leng’s most notable client was

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, the divorced wife of the Dutch magic realist painter

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Life and career

Fong Leng was born in Rotterdam and had a Chinese father and Dutch mother. She went to the ''Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten'' (Academy for Applied Arts) at Rotterdam where she studied Photography. After that she had a photo press bureau for five years with her ex-husband Herbert Behrens. They made photos of various kinds for several Dutch newspapers. It is not known at what age she did all of this. Fong Leng loves to be mysterious about her age and about who she really is. In 1968 she began working as a photographer and fashion and ''dessin'' designer for the jersey manufacturer Ross International in Hoofddorp, near Amsterdam. During this employment she discovered her affinity with fabrics and clothing. Fong Leng Luipaardmantel

Designs

The materials Fong Leng uses for her creations are leather, suede, silk, marabou feathers, and fur. She uses techniques like application, incrustation, quilting, matelassé, smocking and pleating. Most designs have figurative images on them. Fong Leng is most famous by her cloak dresses for women. High society and extravagant women like Mathilde Willink and

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

wore clothes by Fong Leng. The cloak dresses were given names such as ''Straalmantel'' (Radius Cloak), Nijinski, Paradijsvogel (Paradise Bird), and Luipaardmantel (Leopard Cloak) (see picture).

Studio Fong Leng

Apart from self made designs Studio Fong Leng sold goods from different international fashion designers such as

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and

Alice Pollock Alice Pollock (born 1942) is a British fashion designer and retailer who founded the boutique ''Quorum'', which featured the work of fellow designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, and later started the male modelling agency ''English Boy'' in ...

. Studio Fong Leng's concept was something that had never been done before. She invited her customers with champagne and appetizers in her shop. Once a year the Studio organised fashion shows with dancing mannequins and loud pop music playing along. The first two shows were held at the shop, later on when crowds became too big, Fong Leng arranged places like the

Beurs van Berlage The Beurs van Berlage is a building on the Damrak, in the centre of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903. It influenced many modernist architects, in par ...

, the

Tropenmuseum The Tropenmuseum ( en, Museum of the Tropics) is an ethnographic museum located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1864. One of the largest museums in Amsterdam, the museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of tem ...

and the De Mirandabad. Fong Leng was the artistic director of Studio Fong Leng. Together with her business partner Suzanne Kiss she opened the studio. Kiss left in 1974 but came back a couple of times when needed. Since 1974 Berry Brun became chief designer. He helped Fong Leng stay popular, but during the years he came to the conclusion that Fong Leng was too tightly holding on to her successes from the earlier years. He left Studio Fong Leng in 1984 to teach at the fashion department of the Art Academy in Arnhem.

Museums

In 1975 the

Centraal Museum The Centraal Museum is the main museum in Utrecht, Netherlands, founded in 1838. The museum has a wide-ranging collection, mainly of works produced locally. The collection of the paintings by the Northern Mannerist Joachim Wtewael is by a lon ...

in Utrecht was the first museum to collect Fong Leng’s work. The museum bought it straight out of Fong Leng’s studio, so it had never been worn by anybody. The museum paid 10,000 guilders for the ''Straalmantel''. Up to this day there are numerous museums that have creations made by Studio Fong Leng in their collections. For instance:

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Museum Rotterdam The Museum Rotterdam, until 2011 called the Historical Museum Rotterdam, is a museum about the history of Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It ...

, and

Kunstmuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

. During the years there have been several exhibitions organised solely devoted to Fong Leng's designs: * 1974,

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened on ...

, Amsterdam * 1983, Historisch Kostuum Museum (nowadays

) * 1986, Singer Museum, Laren * 1987, Dutch * 1988, Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden * 1997, Het Kruithuis, Den Bosch * 1998, ''Diva Fong Leng'', Frisia Museum, Spanbroek * 2013,

, Utrecht * 2013-2014, ''Fong Leng. Fashion & Art'',

Amsterdam

Fong Leng after the Studio

Studio Fong Leng went bankrupt in 1987. This is due to investments in the Amsterdam Olympic Games of 1992 that didn't happen. In 1984 Amsterdam was one of the candidates to host the Olympic Games of 1992. The Dutch Olympic Committee asked Fong Leng to design merchandise. Fong Leng invested in the development of about 75 articles like T-shirts, sneakers and sunglasses. Unfortunately the Games of 1992 went to Barcelona instead and Fong Leng's designs weren't used anymore. This caused Studio Fong Leng bankruptcy. Also Fong Leng's designs weren't that popular anymore. As Berry Brun already stated, the designs didn't show the evolution of fashion. This is why from the end of the 1980s Fong Leng shifted her focus to interior design. To this day she mostly concentrates on making what she calls ''paintings in leather''. For this she uses the leather techniques she used in her earlier career.A. den Dekker, ''Fong Leng. Fashion and art'', us.cat.Leerdam (Booxs) 2013, p. 'Mode en kunst'.

References

Bibliography

* Alrichs, Corine. ‘Van stoffige kleding naar gedachten van stof. De huidige status van hedendaags modedesign in musea’. Master Thesis 2009. * Boffin, Renee, ''Fong Leng: Modeontwerpster'', Amsterdam (Kobra) 1982. . * Dekker, Annemarie den, ''Fong Leng. Fashion and art'', us.cat.Leerdam (Booxs) 2013, . * ‘Fong Leng’, ''Goed Handwerk'', no. 95, May 1983. * Fong Leng, ''Fong-Leng door Fong-Leng'', Amsterdam (Bakker) 2003, . * Lampe, Bregje, ‘That ’70s Show’, ''De Volkskrant'', 13 December 2013. * Schacknat, Karin, ''Fong-Leng'', Zwolle/Arnhem (d'Jonge Hond/ArtEZ Press ) 2010, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Fong Leng 1937 births Living people Artists from Rotterdam Dutch fashion designers Dutch people of Chinese descent