Couture in Chinatown

Ask Victor Tung whether he draws inspiration from any particular designer in the fashion industry and he’ll give a quick but polite “no.”When you see his garments, that’s no surprise. Each of the San Francisco designer’s creations is unique—more a piece of art than a dress or jacket.

Tung hand cuts and hand draws or paints every piece that comes out of his Chinatown studio. He has dressed everyone from movie stars to city supervisors, an ambassador’s wife, and students. He says his clients range from 17 to 98 years old. 

“I don’t follow the fashion trends,” Tung says. “I just do what I want.”

He works strictly with natural dyes and fabrics, mostly ink-loving silk, to create statement-making dresses, jackets and more. A fitted dress features a Basquiat’s name across the chest above the artist’s signature crown. An oversized, glimmering gold star decorates the torso of another, against a backdrop of bright orange, pink and blue graffiti. 

This confident point of view grew out of necessity. When Tung and his ex-wife moved from China to San Francisco in the early 2000’s, they were starting from scratch. She had been a doctor, but her license wasn’t valid in the U.S. The couple was drawn to the Chinatown neighborhood, where so many families of Chinese descent have found community and started businesses. 

In 2018, the sisters launched Kim & Ono, an apparel company specializing in kimonos with a storefront at 729 Grant Ave. It’s an evolution of the family business, which they took over in 2004.

Just a few years earlier, Tung and his wife arrived in the neighborhood and found community but lacked family ties. They were new in town and needed to find something to do.

“I asked my wife, what would you like to do? She said she was interested in fashion. I said, ‘Let’s start to do fashion.’ That's how I started.”

Tung had always loved to sketch, so he transferred that passion to clothing. In the beginning, the couple worked out of the garage of their home. They weren’t thinking seriously about opening a store, but when they walked down the street wearing the garments they had created, passersby demanded to know where they got them. 

“When we told them we made it, they encouraged us to start a business,” Tung says. 

Soon, his atelier was bustling with customers wanting couture pieces for weddings, dinners, openings and more. Victor Tung Couture’s current location at 652 Commercial Street was born in 2007 and thrived for 13 years—until the pandemic hit in 2020. “My dresses are typically for a special event, for a party. The pandemic was a big hit to us.” 

Production suddenly halted, but Tung was, in the grand scheme, lucky. Over the years he had continued to paint, and suddenly with everyone staying home, decorating became more important than ever. His non-garment artwork was in demand.