Tuyen Tran wins a 2015 Vilcek Prize

Tuyen Tran was picked as the winner of a Creative Promise Prize in Fashion for designs that fuse environmental awareness and everyday functionality with a modern, minimal aesthetic.  Tran is a fashion designer and a recent graduate of Parsons School of Design at the New School, earning a BFA in Fashion Design.

She views fashion as a form of functional product design: enabling movement, adapting to different environments, and potentially enhancing the wearer’s happiness. Building on her strong foundation of menswear tailoring techniques, Tran’s graduate collection of womenswear perfected a capsule wardrobe of functional garments, which could be worn and layered in numerous ways; it was nominated for the Parsons Designer of the Year award.

Tuyen Tran was born in Vietnam. The winner of the prize is awarded a $100,000 unrestricted cash prize and an unique trophy designed by Austrian-born designer Stefan Sagmeister.

The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia.  The mission of the foundation, to honor the contributions of foreign-born scholars and artists living in the United States, was inspired by the couple’s careers in biomedical science and art history, respectively, as well as their personal experiences and appreciation for the opportunities they received as newcomers to this country. 

The foundation awards annual prizes to immigrant biomedical scientists and artists and sponsors cultural programs such as the Hawaii International Film Festival. The Vilcek Foundation believes that immigrant contributions are invaluable to advancing the American arts, sciences, and culture.

Now in their tenth year, the Vilcek Foundation Prizes pay tribute to and spotlight individuals whose accomplishments embody this belief. The Vilcek Prize in the Arts honors an artist with records of major achievement in her or his field. The winner of the prize is awarded a $100,000 unrestricted cash prize and an unique trophy designed by Austrian-born designer Stefan Sagmeister.