Object: T-shirt
Designer:
Vivienne Tam
(born 1957)
Date: 1995
Medium: White cotton, clear sequins, and yellow polyester crepe
Country: USA
Credit Line: Gift of Vivienne Tam
Object number: 95.82.1
DescriptionMao So Young Set; white cotton T-shirt with humorous photo print of Mao in pigtails in large square, covered with clear sequins; straightleg pants in yellow polyester crepe
Label Text:The face of Communist leader Mao Zedong was an omnipresent political symbol during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966. Chinese-American designer Vivienne Tam’s unconventional use of Mao’s portrait provoked controversy by challenging the image’s power. Her spring 1995 collection, designed in collaboration with New York–based Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu, featured numerous satirical images of Zedong. In this example, printed on a white cotton t-shirt and decorated with clear sequins, Tam added a red-and-white gingham top with a Peter Pan collar to Zhang’s portrait of Mao with pigtails.
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