MEET THE LEGEND: Asia Pham
Creative Asia Pham empowers women through her one of a kind clothing
Originally from Lancaster, PA, Asia Pham never intended to start a business out of her casual hobby, but eventually did, and has been doing well ever since. Originally making clothes she could feel confident in, Asia expanded to making sets for women, and empowers them along the way.
Q: Who are you and how would you describe what you do?
A: "I am Asia Pham. I am 20 years old (almost 21 March 1st) and I am pursuing a BS in Marketing and a minor in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. I make two-piece sets for women. I would not describe myself as a designer at all! But I would also describe what I do as women empowerment, not in a cliche way at all though. I just want women to have the highest self love; the best way to do that is to look and feel amazing. I think the type of woman that I am and my style can transcend through my sets to these women who purchase them."
Q: How and when did you get started?
A: "I’ve been doing stuff with clothes since I was around 12 or 13. Tumblr was a huge influence on me fashion wise, yet I stopped because it wasn’t cool at the time to thrift & reconstruct clothing where I grew up.
I continued to be into clothing, and dressing well just came naturally. I'll always wear what I feel confident in.
Fast-forward to being 19 years old, and I’ve been yearning to start making my own clothing because nothing was fitting right. I would cut up my thrifted clothes in hopes it would work out.
Moving to August 17, 2018, on me and my boyfriend’s 1 year anniversary, and he surprised me with a sewing machine to get started on sewing. Luckily, one of my designer friends lil_tshirt taught me how to make a pair of pants when I was 18! It was like a very very slow foreshadowing to what I am doing now.
But back to the point, I started making pants and shirts just to practice and it came out really awesome. I never thought I was going to make this into a business or anything. I saw a couple posts on social media of people reconstructing giant sweaters into 2-piece sets and I was like, “Hmm, this is something I can totally do!” So on January 1st, 2019, I made my first set and then it just took off from there."
Q: What was it like growing up where you did and how did it influence you?
A: "I grew up in Lancaster, PA & lived there until I went to college. It was definitely interesting, from actual city to Amish culture & farm land, next to poor areas and oddly wealthy areas. It honestly doesn’t make sense. I also grew up in a place where it is mostly Hispanic and black, so I was heavily influenced by their cultures because being white/Vietnamese… there aren’t many of me. Although my cultural values were instilled in me, I kept my culture at home.
Majority of my friends were either black, Puerto Rican or a mix of both. I found that my friends accepted me more than people of my own race. I was around a lot of culture and it made me learn so much. I felt like I was really apart of my friend’s family and they just engulfed me into lifestyles.
It is still funny to me because I really would be the only Asian friend most of my friends had. But overall, my hometown influenced me to leave and do bigger and better things. There is so much that I experienced that has given me more wisdom & insight. "
Q: What keeps you motivated?
A: "This is always a tough question because it's so broad. On a day to day, I don’t even think about motivation, I don’t think about, “wow, come on Asia you need to do this because of…” I honestly feel like motivation to do something is just in me.
BUT I definitely do have my days where I am overwhelmed, overworked, exhausted but I know I just need to finish something. What I think about when I need motivation is my dad. I just think like you know dad came halfway across the world just to have a better life and didn’t even know English and you can’t even finish one activity? Then I'm like “aight, bet, get to work.” I also, now, have an extremely supportive group of people in my life. My boyfriend and two best friends remind me I can do anything. It just works for me when I talk to either my dad, boyfriend or 2 best friends. I snap back."
Q: What’s your creative process?
A: "My creative process is me locking myself in my room and playing music. I also just daydream a lot and it usually comes to fruition. Overall, I am more of a doer than a sayer if that makes sense."
Q: Something most people don’t know about you?
A: "Since I don’t really tweet or post a lot of personal information, I feel like there is a lot that people don’t know about me. I think something that people might find odd is that I am obsessed with Seth MacFarlane. I just resonate so much with how he conducts himself in terms of business, art, socially, etc and aspire to have his creative ability. I know some people are going to be like confused but trust me, he is a genius."
Q: Any words of wisdom/ anything you wanted to let people know?
A: "I need people to know that you need to stop comparing yourself to others. The only person you better compare yourself to is yourself from the day before. I honestly focus on myself so much that that is why I can accomplish whatever I put my mind too. You need to explore, you need to find out what you like and don't like. You need to learn about yourself, find out how you need love, find out what makes you unique. Literally, take time and love yourself. I spent years doing this. I know this isn’t easy. I know it’s hard, I know there are days that are absolute shit and you don’t wanna continue. But in that moment, you need to take a break and then convene with yourself later or even the next day. You never wanna give up on yourself. I really mean everything I say. I want everyone to stop relying on others when most of the time you can do it yourself, get into the habit of doing things alone. I find myself to be a highly independent person and it makes me feel good. I have found myself in times when I was ostracized and alone. Be alone. Think. Learn."
Check out more of her work and follow below!
Twitter: @abphamous
Instagram: abphamous
