Vietnamese fashion: what to wear?

VietNamNet – Young Vietnamese are in a sudden tempest of international culture, art and technology. They way they adapt, especially in fashion, is causing a confrontation with their elders.

 

Summer on streets

 

Thuy even dresses her navel.

Hanoi

is in the middle of summer. Some days, the weather is very hot, and that much hotter for men, who must wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts while women get some relief in low-necked dresses as they chat on their motorbikes.

 

In a bar at Hang Hanh Street, central Hanoi one recent day, all the men were seen to rotate their heads when a woman in an unimaginably tight pair of jeans walked by with three of her friends, in a skimpy top that fully revealed her cleavage, delicate rose tattoo on her shoulder, navel fully exposed.

 

That was Thuy Linh, 17, one of the young Hanoi women who indulge in a revealing style that has become a controversial topic in the Vietnamese urban community. Linh is among the many Vietnamese fans of Western stars, emulating Western style, forcing a confrontation with elders who favour tradition.

 

In another street, casting a look of disdain at a young woman in a black halter top that exposed more of her back than it covered one recent afternoon, 80-year-old Nguyen Thi Tam, owner of a small book shop, didn't mince words chastising her young customer, even though she was a client spending money in Tam’s shop.

 

“I do not understand how a woman can dress like this in public. I have never done that in my whole life, even in my own room. People my age really hate clothes like that!” She said with disdain.

                                                                                                                            

Ignoring the tirade, the girl positioned herself in front of Lady Tam and asked for her book ‘Massaging and Caring for Skin’, which the old woman grudgingly handed over but not without first casting a wrathful look.

 

“She sounds like my mother. Why are old people all that same,” said the customer later, Nguyen Thanh An, 25, a student from Hanoi Conservatory of Music.

 

“I'm an aggressive girl. I don't care what people say. I wear what I want to wear. I do what I want to do.”

 

An said most of her friends prefer dressing in a similar style. It is a trend of Vietnamese fashion among a growing number of young, urban Vietnamese women like her.

 

 “I and my friends are now all around 22 and will not be young forever. Why shouldn’t we reveal our beauty when we have it. Especially when we are artists,” An said.

 

Confrontation of generations

 

Mrs Tam and An represent different opinions on dress, divided by generations mostly in urban areas. There are the young, who fervently welcome low-necked dresses of a Western style, and the older, more traditional look.

 

When Mrs Tam was a young woman, she and her friends knew how to dress: conservatively, with every inch of their flesh covered, no exposed legs, no exposed arms, and no exposed bellybuttons.

Older Vietnamese women generally wear loose-fitting pants and blouses made of silk, cotton or linen. Many still wear the conical straw hats as well. Men and women going to the office tend to wear conservative dresses and suits, usually in dark colours or earth tones.

But their younger counterparts wear European-style, hip-hugger jeans, halter tops, short pants, short skirts, see-through blouses, tattoos and the occasional navel piercing.

 

“I swooned when I saw a tattoo on my 18-year-old daughter’s breast.  It was a monster with an open mouth and red eyes. I could do nothing but look. She looked like someone from the gangland,” said 50-year-old Nguyen Thi Van.

 

“Fortunately, it is just a fake tattoo that she sticks to herself. I do not know how I would respond if it were permanent,” she added.

 

Ms Van’s daughter, Le Dieu Thuy, 16, is a fan of US pop star Britney Spears, around her room, images of the star. Thuy has also adopted most of Spears’ dress.

 

As most Vietnamese parents consider a bare shoulder risqué, low-necked tops are downright radical. So Thuy must make her elders happy before she goes outside. To please Mom and Dad, for instance, she might layer a conservative blouse over a skimpy top with a plunging neckline. But as soon as she's out of the neighbourhood - and out of her parents' sight - off comes the frumpy top.

 

“I want to wear very revealing clothes, but I’m afraid of my parents,'' said Thuy. “I put my long-sleeved shirt back on when I return home'' Thuy said of her cunning.

 

Thuy’s father, 56, thinks women look best in a conservatively cut Vietnamese traditional dress such as ao dai, the flowing silk pantsuit, usually brightly coloured, that Vietnamese women generally wear on formal occasions.

 

A matter of opinion

 

Actor Bich and his girlfriend at second-hand clothing shop.

Dao Van Bich, an actor who plays a main role in the 11^th episode of the television series, Criminal Police, derived from the novel Mot The Gioi Khong Co Dan Ba (A World Without Women) by writer Bui Anh Tan, said he does not care how his girlfriend dresses. “She can wear whatever she wants to be beautiful. I’m proud of the way she

exposes her beauty.”

 

Mr Bich said he himself prefers products firm names in fashion. To save money, he occasionally goes to second-hand shops to buy things for himself and his girlfriend. “Second-hand dresses sometimes are wonderful. It may be the only and smart one,” he said.

 

His girlfriend, a performer in World Without Women, prefers wearing a décolleté wrapping and a copy of Spice Girl Mel C‘s bracelet on her aim when she shops with Bich.

 

But on the other side, Nguyen Van Quang, owner of the second-hand where Bich and his girlfriend shop said he isn't pleased by what he sees. “Traditional Vietnamese clothes are not revealing. The serious women must not look so scantily clad. I think revealing girls are just good for play, but never good to marry,'' he opined.

 

Quang also revealed a new trend where Vietnamese men have been putting more time into their appearance. “Hanoi now has a growing-number of ‘woman-look men.’ I could not keep myself from laughing when I saw boys in yellow hair and colourful clothes. I don’t know what they’re thinking, he added, shakng his head

 

Mr Quang, who wears a T-shirt and shorts, explained that it is more comfortable for him to run his shop all day in simple clothes and said that jeans and a T-shirt are suitable for most men.

 

Quang’s wife, Huong, 40, dresses in orange silk pyjamas most of the time, said self-confidently that she looks younger and more conservative with it, adding “silk is the most suitable thing for women in my age.”

 

Mrs Huong said she’d grown tired of clothes like that of her younger sister, who works at a local company. “She wears a formal uniform all day. How is that comfortable?” Huong said she asked her sister this once and her sister replied that she did not feel comfortable with Huong’s silk.

 

“She said she hates my clothing. It is impolite and I should just wear it only at home,” Huong said testily.

 

How should we dress?

 

“Nobody has the answer. It depends on each person’s work, style, taste and environment,” said fashion designer Phuong Nguyen. “I think the best is that each one should have a number of versatile outfits and transform themselves for each situation.”

 

“Revealing clothing is sometimes good, but sometimes is bad,” added the designer, saying the most intelligent and fashionable people are the ones, who change outfits like a chameleon.

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