VANESSA HONG
Tamu McPherson:
Let’s start with the background of your beauty story, and how it influenced the way your beauty ideals were formed?
Vanessa Hong:
So I grew up in “beautiful British Columbia, Vancouver”. That’s actually the tagline, the motto for how we sell our province in Canada the Pacific Northwest. Very low key.
I don’t know if you’ve been to Vancouver before, but it’s very granola. It’s very low key, very casual. Everyone’s got great skin, everyone’s super natural. Growing up, I was super into fashion, but I didn’t really develop a super intense interest in hair and makeup until later on. I feel like when I started living in New York was when that really developed, in my late twenties. Before that, I never used to wear makeup unless I was on set and someone was shooting me. I always just felt like I didn’t really know how to do my makeup.
And you know, maybe just to dive really into it, I never saw anybody that looked like me in fashion magazines. So when I was growing up, my mom went to fashion school, so we had fashion magazines everywhere in the home. I used to watch this show called Fashion File hosted by Tim Blanks in Canada. It was the only fashion show that we had! It was on CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Channel, and would always come on at the most random times of the night. So my whole upbringing, I was surrounded by fashion inspiration, but rarely saw anybody that looked like me, honestly. The closest person of any color was maybe Naomi Campbell. And I’m not Black, clearly, but I had heard that Naomi has some Chinese heritage as well. Maybe it’s like 10%, but I clung onto that, you know? Because there was nobody else that I could identify with. I mean, obviously I found Kate Moss as aspirational, and all the supers of the nineties, but everyone looked literally the complete opposite of me.
I was a skinny, dark Asian kid growing up. In my family, I was made fun of because I’m naturally dark, like East Asian. Some East Asians are naturally tan. We were born this way. So I never quite fit into my family, because I was darker-skinned, and then in this fantasy fashion world of mine, I didn’t really see anybody that looked like me, either. So I never played around with makeup much when I was in high school, even when all of my friends would go buy CoverGirl makeup. I’d be like, Oh my God, this blue eyeshadow looks so great on you! I’d put on myself and was like… this looks horrible.
Tamu McPherson:
You know, as a street style photographer, I remember all of your iconic hair looks. Where do you get the inspiration for all of your hairstyles? And you’re very, you’re very adventurous with your hairstyles. How did you come into the confidence you have in experimenting with your hair like this?
Vanessa Hong:
I’ve had Blonde hair for almost 10 years now, which is really, really wild. When I first did it, it was because I just wanted to do something different. I remember seeing Soo Joo Park and I was like, Wow, she looks phenomenal, I wanna do this. And in terms of creating looks, my inspiration is always editorial. How I wear clothes, like how I want to do my hair, it always comes from a highly editorialized kind of place. So I’ll go on Pinterest and I’ll look at archival runway shows or archival magazine editorials.
When I create these quote unquote, viral looks, I start with the outfit. It always starts with the outfit. I’m a fashion girl, I wanna be here to honor the outfit. One of my first ever viral looks was at a Chanel show, and it was all pearls. The iconic days. They loaned me a very old suit from the archives, you could tell how old it was just by touching it. Very simple, and you could tell it had only been worn a few times.
When I got the look initially I was like, Oh, I wish I’d gotten like a tweed suit or whatever, something iconically Chanel. But when I started looking at it closer, I realized it was a jumping point for me to do something really cool. They were hosting it at the Met that year. Do you remember? It was in the Egyptian room, like where the pyramids are. And actually it was one of the last shows I ever saw with Karl. I went to my hair stylist and I was like, I know the suit looks very simple, but I want you to create a constellation around my head. And I want the hair to be almost like an alien helmet.
So then we collaborated, and I remember she came to my apartment that night and I was sitting on my check-in luggage, because I still didn’t have furniture in my house. And she was literally hot-gluing the jewels that she found in a gem store in New York with bobby pins. And as we were putting this all together, she was molding and sculpting my hair. And one by one, she would place these things in. It was a lot of back and forth, very collaborative. She initially was like, Oh, maybe do you want just one side? I’m like, No girl. I want the entire thing. I want this to be a 360 experience. I want you to see me. And I remember the moment… even after I saw it, it was so beautiful. I always feel like I’m never doing enough. That’s very much my personality. But at that moment I remember walking in there, everyone was just like, jaw drop. Everyone was like, Can I please take a photo of your head?
So, long story short, it always starts from a place of respect for what I’m wearing. And it starts from a place of really – I don’t know if this is a word, but I’ve been using it – surreal, cerebral, the outfit. For me to make it something really interesting I really have to understand the concept. What is the vibe? What’s the environment? What’s the history of the garment? So there is a very cerebral aspect to it, for me.
Tamu McPherson:
So you mentioned that Naomi Campbell influenced your beauty journey, and she is such a fun, wonderful reference. Who are some other beauty icons that you relate to?
Vanessa Hong:
I think my mom has been my original muse from the very beginning.
Neither of my parents graduated from high school. There is this idea that all Asian parents are like tiger moms or tiger dads, but I had very bohemian parents and my mom was kind of the black sheep in her family. So when I was growing up, my mom was wearing Yohji, she was wearing nineties Donna Karen, she was wearing Versace. She wore black nail polish, black lip glosses from Versace. She did all the things. I just thought my mom was so beautiful and she was so adventurous with all of her looks. I would say she was the very first person that inspired me.
Tamu McPherson:
As a digital creator, you are constantly working with your image. How has this medium and this exposure informed the way you see yourself?
Vanessa Hong:
There’s positive and negative aspects.
Tamu McPherson:
You’re always candid about this, that’s one thing I love about you.
Vanessa Hong:
Sometimes I ask myself, would I love myself more if I wasn’t publicly sharing myself all the time? We’re constantly looking, taking selfies, right? Yes. And our phones and the cameras capture things very differently than how we perceive ourselves, right?
When I first started naming how I felt, I realized, oh, I actually have body dysmorphia. I don’t have a severe case of it, but I have it the same as most women do nowadays. And having, you know, facial dysmorphia, sometimes I will see myself like in a photo, I’m like, Oh, I don’t like this about myself.
I was wondering, am I the only one feeling this? Am I the only one that’s so crazy? I listened to this podcast about how our phones capture us: the closest thing to the phone is gonna seem the biggest. So since the explosion of iPhones and this culture of selfies, that’s why nose jobs have skyrocketed. The nose is the closest thing to the phone, so when someone takes a selfie, they’re like, Oh my god, this is huge, but it’s because of the camera. And I think that’s why we have to have very healthy-ish boundaries with what we do on our phone, and understand that all of this is not necessarily real.
The positive side of working in the digital universe is that trends happen really quickly. The sharing of information is so prolific. If it wasn’t for technology, I definitely don’t think my sense of style or my sense of adventure with makeup and hair would be as advanced as it is today. For me, I’m feeling much more adventurous and wanting to do new things because I’m like, well, you know, I’m gonna be sharing images of myself, so maybe I wanna switch things up. I don’t want to stick with one thing for too long.
Tamu McPherson:
I think that’s the freedom that social media and our work gives us. It does keep it really interesting.
Have you felt or noticed that our industry has evolved at all emerging from the surge in awareness of prejudice and violence against Asians across the world?
Vanessa Hong:
Yes and no.
I’m not a pessimistic person at all. Anyone that would say I’m pessimistic based on that answer, they’re not seeing what’s happening. Obviously, during the height of the pandemic, I think a lot of people were very idealistic about what the industry was gonna look like after. But I think we’ve only barely scratched the surface. And being an individual that works inside the industry as well as sometimes being in front of the camera, there’s still a lot of things that need to be fixed.
There’s a lot of things that need to be addressed. And I mean… I don’t think it’s gonna happen within my lifetime. Because ultimately I think we need to be looking at power dynamics, right? Who’s holding the power, who’s making the decisions?
I work with brands, but I am fully autonomous. I can choose who I work with, I can choose in what capacity I wanna work with them. And in a way, simply being in the industry and being vocal about certain things, and caring for myself a certain way is, is just my way of contributing.
I don’t know if you’ve ever gotten to this yourself, but there have been so many times where I’m like, f*@$ this. I don’t need to do this. But one of my mentors is Philip Lim, a fashion designer in New York, and he’s told me that I need to stay in this industry, because our simple presence in a room is a message already. And conducting oneself respectfully and with the energy of I deserve to be here. I have a seat at the table and I’m going to stand here and I’m not going to disappear. I want my presence to be felt.
Tamu McPherson:
No one is hearing it.
Vanessa Hong:
No one is going to hear it. I felt so alone for so many years, like, oh my God, am I the only person?
Tamu McPherson:
And it’s systemic. So they gaslight us into not talking about it. So, why did you feel alone for so long? Actually, I wanted to talk to you about this because, because you and Tina Leung both chose to have blonde hair, they’re confusing you and mistaking you guys for each other. I saw Nicole Warne and Chriselle Lim at Valentino and they were saying the same thing. That they’ve had people full on have conversations with them thinking they were the other person. Because in white supremacy, we, as people of color, are all considered a monolith. We look alike. We’re the same person. There is no homework. No one is saying, well no, that’s not Tina, that’s Vanessa. Nobody’s doing it. You can’t be the only two Asian girls with blonde hair. How does that make you feel? You are edgy. Tina is very glamorous. You look nothing alike. Your aesthetics are completely different. How does it feel that industry professionals confuse you guys?
Vanessa Hong:
It’s really interesting. So even before Tina, people used to confuse me with Margaret Zhang.
Tamu McPherson:
And she looks really young, she’s always looked like a 15-year old. And good for her! Amazing genes. But you guys look nothing alike.
Vanessa Hong:
So when I first started going to fashion week, Margaret and I used to travel with each other. People would routinely confuse us, even afterwards. Margaret was not even blonde – she was blonde for like a hot second, then she went to blue. But even before she went blonde, people would always confuse us.
Not to drag other people in the industry, but it’s like, okay, you literally have five influencers who are all white, blonde, same body type, same style, but you know all of them. You somehow find the nuance with these five girls. But with these two girls, you’re not even doing the homework.
Sometimes it drives me wild. Me and Tina kind of joke about it. Actually, when we left the Gucci show, someone taking a video asked us to introduce ourselves, and I was like, Hi, I’m Tina! And Tina was like, Hi, I’m Vanessa. Because it’s like… what’s the point?
If anything I find it really, really embarrassing.
Tamu McPherson:
On their part.
Vanessa Hong:
Yes. I know Betty has done it for me before, leaving a comment to say, you just tagged the wrong person. Or like, I will write a comment if it’s an Instagram post, this is not even remotely close to me. And I mean, I have been mistaken for Soo Joo before… I’m like, great that somehow in some universe you think I look like, you know, Soo Joo the supermodel.
Tamu McPherson:
Thanks.
Vanessa Hong:
But like… different Asian diaspora! Completely different height and body type and skin tone as well. What confuses me is not only the haircut and the style, but also I’m a darker skin tone. I’m a darker skin tone than a lot of girls that they would mistake me for. And because it happens so often and I’m like, I don’t really know what more I can do.
Tamu McPherson:
But your point that they’ll have five influencers who are rewarded for looking the same, cuz it’s annoying as hell that they are rewarded for looking exactly the same and being a carbon copy of each other’s style. Those women are privileged for being white and they are living in their privilege and you know, white PR officers, they will give them the honor of studying who they are, but the rest of us don’t get that same privilege. And, and that’s the point. It’s the privilege.
Vanessa Hong:
I feel very embarrassed for the PR people who mess up these things. And actually when I was in Copenhagen recently for a fashion show – did you see Vashti’s post about this?
Tamu McPherson:
No.
Vanessa Hong:
So we attended a fashion show together and this brand had dressed her for the show. They’re like, can’t wait to see you there. She gets there, and they put her in standing. I’m like, y’all don’t know who Vashti is?? Like she is the culture.
Tamu Pherson:
For the last decade and a half.
Vanessa Hong:
And then I talked to Chrissy Ford about this after. And Chrissy’s like, this happens to me all the time. Like all the time. So going back into that question of yours: do you think things have changed? At the core of it? No, not really. Maybe if you are one of the people holding guard at these old PR agencies and maybe you can pat yourself on the back to be like, Oh well I put like three Asians in the front row. But you’re still getting us confused. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve shown up at doors where I’m sitting front row for a show and they’ll be like, Hey, good morning Tina. Or like, I’ll go to a fitting and they’ll be like, Hey Tina, we like selecting these things for you.
Tamu McPherson:
Not putting the work in.
Vanessa Hong:
I get it. You are tired. But even on an average day, if someone called you by a different name and they were convinced that that was your name, it’s very disrespectful. And it doesn’t make you feel good.
Tamu McPherson:
No. It will chip away at your self worth.
Vanessa Hong:
How are we still having to confront these issues on the daily, on the hourly?
Tamu McPherson:
I’m interested to know, how do you think beauty for the Asian diaspora has changed if at all of late?
Vanessa Hong:
I feel so much more proud to be Asian than I think I’ve ever felt. And this is not only like a beauty level, but just like a whole 360 spiritual level. My whole life, I had always wanted to look like my friends, and all my friends were fair-skinned brunettes and blondes, because I never saw anybody that looked like me. Philip once told me, if you can’t see it, you can’t believe it. So how do you, a young human, consider yourself worthy or beautiful when you don’t see that reflected or validated anywhere?
The youth culture now, they give no fucks. And they’re leaning into their Asianness, and leaning into all the things that make our diaspora so beautiful. That’s really inspiring. There is definitely some sort of spiritual shift that did happen after 2020. The entire planet paused and systemic racism was put out there in the open, and it was really embarrassing for all these people.
So, yeah, I really want to own my Asianness now more than ever. It’s so funny. Even things like that whole fox eye plastic surgery trend, I think Bryan talked about this too. It’s basically Asian eye surgery, the shape they are creating. And it’s always been a racist trope, a thing that someone does when they want to make squinty eyes, but now it’s a plastic surgery trend, and you want to call that something else. You don’t wanna call it Asian.
Having my online community, having friends who see me and who are killing it and embracing all their Asianness, it’s really inspiring. Even working like with younger with younger generations – they just give no fucks. And I think even older generations are really feeling it too.
Because my mom went to British boarding school in Hong Kong and had been living in Vancouver since she was 13, she has very much been a part of the white world her whole life. And although I think she’s never been ashamed of her Asianness, I think now more so than ever, she’s very proud of her heritage and where she comes from. And so I think there’s a shift happening across generations, and my hope is that more and more of us can just live in our Asianness, and our fullness. Because we are beautiful. All of us are on this planet, and we should lean into the things that make us so unique.
