Antiquated Luxe
My Sassy Artist
By Lily Tsen
Two summers ago, a friend of mine told me that his summer plans were to go to Taiwan with a "Love Boat" group, which is an organized tour group that takes youth on excursions around the country to learn about contemporary Taiwanese culture and the historically rich country that their ancestors emigrated from. It became known as "Love Camp" because youth have created a trend of "hooking up" on their trips. My friend's mother arranged this trip in hope that he would meet "someone nice," or possibly a life partner. I responded, "That's ridiculous-if you went abroad and met someone from halfway across the world, what are the chances that the relationship will work out after you go back to your respective homes?" Well, I judged too early. Relationships in such scenarios do work out. It was especially favorable for couture designer Colleen Quen and interior designer Rick Lee, who met on the trip in Taiwan, Taichung over 20 years ago. For the past eleven-years, they have been devoted lifetime partners who create and express their work together, and invigorate each other every day.
Colleen Quen is a couture fashion designer-all her dresses are hand-sewn with the finest materials. The Bay Area native grew up with an obsession with art-since she was 5, she was fixated with coloring with Crayons in coloring books, and later, she advanced to ceramics, macramé, sewing, embroidery, beadwork, and piano/flute. Colleen attended Cal State Hayward to earn degrees in computer science/software engineering and business, after which she went to Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco for her Fashion Design degree. Her mother, a designer herself, had a great impact on her interest in art and clothes making. In thanks, she says, "I always had a new dress created when I went to a party." Her mother taught her to create and express her own style, and from thereafter, Colleen learned to make decisions on what to wear at an early age. So naturally, fashion became one of her strongest talents. "It was just a matter of listening to my heart and realizing that fashion and creating clothing for women is why I'm here on this earth. I love every single process of how it begins as you design it, to creating it, and to having your client wear it."
And of course, every artist meets his and her obstacles and "artist's block," but when asked about what the most challenging aspect about being an artist for her way, she merely replied, "[I just] let [my] expression and creativity take over." She poses the advice to other artists, suggesting not letting the trend dictate their design, "Create your own design life path for others to follow!" In ten years, she hopes to own her own boutiques in San Francisco, New York, and Paris with her talented husband Rick Lee.
Rick Lee was also inspired throughout his life to work toward a creative and artistic life. As a child, his interests included active, outdoor hobbies such as fishing, hiking, and ice-skating on the frozen rice fields during winter in South Korea, and making his own toys with his older brother Phil. Though he wasn't very familiar with designers growing up, his family members (two older sisters) had great artistic influence on him-also like Colleen, what a surprise!
His favorite artists include Pablo Picasso and Ettore Sottsass. While contemplating to study architecture or fine art in high school, he decided to head in the direction of Industrial Design, which he earned in the University of Illinois. "Obviously I took a different route, but not too far off the track. Shortly after high school, I went to visit my sister down in L.A.; there, I was introduced to the Industrial Design field [by a friend in] graphic design.... I immediately knew this is my calling... since it fulfills my desire for being technical (architecture) as well as artistic (fine art). The most unique thing about the Industrial Design is that you can end up designing all kind of stuff, like furniture, lighting, graphics, interior, electronic products, etc." In fact, he loves his career so much that the biggest challenge about working in his field is "not knowing when to stop working. To me, it's not really work if you love what you do." His long-term career goal, like Colleen, is also to own a fashion and furniture boutiques in major metropolitan areas, such as SF, LA, NY, Paris, Milan and Shanghai with his beautiful and equally proficient and gifted wife, Colleen. He would design the interior space to showcase Colleen's couture line and his favorite interior objects from his independent collection as well his favorite commercial work.
Since the day Rick approached Colleen "in [an] adorable blue shirt" and suggested a first date to go SHOPPING, he stole her heart. Despite the hardship of sustaining a long distance relationship, they did so successfully for almost 10 years-going on telephone dates every week and flying to see each other every couple of months. As a couple, they find that they have much alike-they both can never make a decision, they usually want to do everything at the same time, and they love to travel to beautiful places, eat in wonderful restaurants, visit museums, read great books, shop for antiques, and research their work (in Paris and Milan). Most of all, we enjoy long drives, renting a house on the beach for a week, relaxing with their dog Krinkles, spending time at the Nepenthe restaurant-anything that clears the mind and is tranquil.
Most importantly, they stimulate each other's design work and play active roles in one another's projects-they can easily design complimentarily without discussing their ideas. Colleen remarks about Rick, "His design inspires me -especially his silhouettes, the materials he uses on his furniture, and sculpture. His masculinity and strength inspires me, because I am very feminine with my design lines in my clothing. We balance each other when we put our designs together." Likewise, Rick reflects about his wife, "Colleen inspires me (philosophically) with her usage of fashion forward colors and inspiration for nature, which is feminine." Their similar vision, though they produce distinguishing compositions, enable their products to fit well together. They have completed one exhibit in 2000, focusing on the five elements of fashion and furniture, and once again soon after at the Asian Art Museum. They also exhibited their work with Monsoon in 2002. Their next exhibit will tentatively be planned for 2005 in, hopefully, San Francisco, New York, and possibly Paris/Milan.
See Colleen's gowns in Portrait of Couture. She plans to be a part of San Francisco Fashion Week.
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