Founder and creative director of TANGY and TANGY Collection.
Originally from Zhejian province, she graduated in fashion design from China North-West Textile University in Xi’an in 1990. She founded LIANG Zi Fashion Industrial Corporation Ltd in Shenzhen in 1995, creating with her husband the brand TANGY (literal meaning: the will of nature). Between 1999 and 2001, she undertook two trips to study in Paris (Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale et de la Couture parisienne) then in New York (Fashion Institute of Technology). In 2005, she received a prize to study applied arts in the fashion design category at Central Saint Martins in London. In 2007, she was awarded the Golden Top Award first prize for Fashion, and Harper’s Bazaar (China) reported that she was an eco-pioneer in the fashion sector in China. In 2017, on the back of its success in China, LIANG ZI Fashion Industrial Corporation Ltd created a subsidiary in France, opening a first TANGY Collection boutique in Paris.
In 1995, when LIANG ZI made her debut as a fashion designer, she discovered an ancient Chinese silk (otherwise known as Gambiered silk) with a history of more than 2,200 years. She learned that the traditional process of making it was on the point of being lost forever. Fascinated by the natural material and the traditional techniques behind it as well as loving the glossy look and special touch of the silk, she used it in the first collections for her TANGY brand, developing further the potential of the fabric. TANGY SILK is dyed by hand using the juice of Shu Liang (‘Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour.’), a wild Chinese medicinal plant that grows in the south of China. This process confers on TANGY SILK anti-allergic and anti-irritation properties as well as other skin protection benefits. TANGY SILK is made from unbleached fabrics in pure natural silk of various weights and weaves that are dyed according to fourteen ancient processes, some of which are repeated more than 30 times. For climatic reasons, silk making is carried out between the months of April and October. Progressively, LIANG ZI has brought together around her artisans who have a specialist understanding of these processes. She has personally engaged in research into new varieties such as Coloured TANGY SILK, Raw TANGY SILK and TANGY ORGANZA. Since 2001, LIANG ZI has participated in China International Fashion Week and has promoted an appreciation of TANGY SILK with the Chinese public and with the international community. The perfect combination of tradition and modernity has enabled TANGY and LIANG ZI to win numerous prizes.
In 2008, LIANG ZI convinced the local government of the original location of TANGY SILK to recognises the ecological and environmentally friendly characteristic of the material and register the process of Gambiered silk making as a ‘national intangible cultural heritage’. At her initiative, LIANG ZI Fashion Industrial Corporation Ltd and the State Standardization Committee jointly formulated national standards for Gambiered silk making and Gambiered silk clothing. With the aim of preserving know-how about the making of Gambiered silk and enabling the public to discover it, LIANG Zi Fashion Industrial Corporation Ltd created in Shunde city, Guangdong province a ‘Base for the Production and Protection of Gambiered silk’, which includes an eco-museum designed by the architect Thomas Heatherwick. In addition, “Gambiered Silk Protection Foundation” was set up for protection of this precious material.
TANGY Collection
By honouring nature, we respect ourselves
TANGY Collection is the prestige brand of the designer LIANG ZI, whose mission is to develop and promote a refined aspect of Chinese lifestyle that can be appreciated like a fine wine. She is on a quest to create a timeless style that combines respect for both nature and the self, noble both in spirit and in its sense of refined elegance. The style of TANGY Collection is gentle, calm, natural, fluid and timeless. Appreciated because of the rarity of its materials and the specialness of the weaving, knitting, finishing and making processes, the TANGY Collection is for people who are Gambiered silk connoisseurs, irrelevant of age, background or culture.
