Vietnamese AMerican
costume designer, creative, STORYTELLER
based in Boston.
Eric Tâm Tran is a Boston-based Vietnamese American costume designer, creative and storyteller. Although he graduated from Boston University May 2025 with a BFA in Costume Design and a minor in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Tran’s passion lies within sculpting, challenging and conceptualizing performance art to leave an impact.
As a creative, Tran is passionate about exploring viable ways to utilize sustainable textiles in his work in order to reduce irreversible impacts on the environment. He has approached all his costume designs with sustainability at the forefront by predominantly sourcing thrifted, second-hand textiles for all of his design work.
As a designer, he strives to intentionally tell stories, invite conversations about identity and gain perspective on how clothes speak on our experiences and how we could use clothes as a vessel for our voices. Tran believes that performance art has the potential to change how we move through our everyday lives, but it requires risk taking, willingness, and a shift in perspective.
A pivotal moment in his early career as an artist was his senior thesis during his undergraduate at Boston University. Tran produced, designed, wrote and directed “My Mother’s Applause— a theatrical runway show exploring an immigrant mother’s dream and her son’s desire. The show ran for three days at the Plaza Theatres at Boston Center for the Arts, and included a sold out performance, as well as an all Eastern, South Eastern Asian cast of 26 individuals.
Some exciting upcoming works include, his debut as a Costume Designer for a short film, “Hot Dancing Granny" by Mae Zhang McCauley, Costume Designer for Wheelock Family Theatre’s East Coast production of “When You Trap A Tiger”, stage adapted by Katie Hae Leo, written by Tae Keller. Outside of designing, he is currently in early stages of his next play (Coming 2027).
