Goethe-Institut - Blog Cityscapes

by Lan Phuong

Wear Áo Dài (*) in the middle of Saigon? It’s just an idea in a very leisure day. Young girls wander on their high heels around the Notre Dame Church. That seems to be the only usage of beautiful traditional Áo Dài in such a high pressure city.


A charming áo dài in Saigon - Photo: Courtesy Kim Tuyen

Áo Dài, a very beautiful costume, can show off all the most charming curved line in women body. It was designed long time ago and is still very popular nowadays.
5 years ago, high school girl students wore Áo Dài to schools. People could easily see some young and nice girl ride bicycles and laugh very naturally. It was the past. Now, Students wear modern office dresses to schools. It’s suitable for such a busy, dirty and crowded city like Saigon. Moreover, International schools have made a big fashion change in student costumes with dresses and shoes.

Women love branded fashion

In huge offices buildings, women in Prada, Gucci walk up and down. In that world of beauty and wealthy, you can hardly recognize that you are standing on a street of Saigon, one of a fairly poor country of the South East Asia region. Western companies have brought a new definition in dressing and being beautiful in offices.
Women wear high heels, office dresses, make up attractively. They try to be suitable for a newly developing society. They meet clients, meet new people, and sign contracts. Being beautiful and BRANDED is more important than ever before. They are eager to pay expensively to look charming and luxurious.

In another hand, cheap Chinese and Thai fashionable cloths flow continuously into Saigon and appear in pavement stands everywhere. In TV shows, teenagers see Thai boys or Chinese girls wear something cool and charming. Immediately then, those kinds of fashion are easily found in cheap prices. It’s not a problem to go shopping anymore. It’s the problem that how you wear and go to meet your friends.


Young ladies in Ho Chi Minh Post office - a famous Western building in Saigon

Western movies with young teenager in active jeans and modern simple T- shirt also have very big affect on fashion here for young guys and gals.
Saigon is colorful in fashion, where you can find girls look likely each other in dresses, making up, and hair style. Those kind of fashions are easily found somewhere in Asia months ago.

Traditional – very privilege fashion

Time of cheap Áo Dài passed. Nowadays, when seeing someone wearing beautiful Áo Dài on the street, you must notice that the traditional wear is not cheap at all. Price of material is rising. Price of tailoring is rising. Áo Dài becomes the symbol of beauty, tradition but expensive and leisure.


A charming áo dài in Saigon - Photo: Courtesy Kim Tuyen

In some tours for foreigners, women tour guide are asked to wear Áo Dài. In banks, women wear Áo Dài. In big post offices, Áo Dài is the main uniform. But those are almost only places where women are clean and leisure enough to wear such tender and charming clothing.

However, if you sitting in a corner of the Notre Dame Church on Sunday, you can found a charming city of women in Áo Dài, taking wedding photos with their gallant bridegrooms. Hardly does any woman get married without a wedding picture in Áo Dài. To be a Vietnamese woman is purely attractive, naturally charming, however the city is modernized.

High heels make women look more charming in Áo Dài.

(*) Áo Dài: The traditional dress of Vietnamese women