Vietnamese national dress is inspired by 1920s Paris fashion Women in traditional ao dai dress and conical hats Images of Vietnamese women with their long black hair and beautiful silk dresses flowing in the breeze, gracefully riding bicycles, have sold millions of postcards and paintings. The outfit, the ao dai - pronounced ow zigh - is de rigueur for women on formal occasions or if they are working in hotels or hospitality. But while the origins of the ao dai date back to dresses worn by women in the 18th Century, its modern form can be traced to Paris fashion of the 1920s, when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. Nguyen Cat Tuong, a French-trained fashion designer at the Indochina School of Fine Art in Hanoi, redesigned the style in 1925 to try to modernise the image and role of Vietnamese women. It was promoted as a national costume and became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s in southern Vietnam, where it has been more common than in the north. At times condemned as decadent by the Communists, it was rarely worn during the postwar period but is now back in favour.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 04:02:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015