Reclaiming the Vietnamese Ao Dai

Reclaiming the Vietnamese Áo Dài

WORDS BY HAMY HUYNH

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLIE QINGKANG CAO

In June 2017, I came across advertisements for an Australian clothing brand called Miishka. The advertisement featured a white model wearing what looked like a Vietnamese áo dài—except it was shorter, and she wasn’t wearing any pants. The Miishka website listed the áo dài as a “90’s Vintage Oriental Dress” and was selling it for $95. Aside from this áo dài, they were also selling cultural clothing of multiple other countries and trying to pass them off as “vintage” and “high-fashion.”

When I saw this, I felt completely devastated and many thoughts rampaged inside my mind. This is cultural appropriation! How could someone wear my culture’s clothing in such a distasteful way? How could a clothing brand try to take my culture and turn it into some sort of club attire?! What occurred to me was that mainstream fashion has become another way to oppress multicultural people, so I’m taking matters into my own hands to show people the beauty of áo dài, how it came about, and why it’s so important to me.

HISTORY OF THE ÁO DÀI

Áo dài directly translates into English as “long shirt”. Today, the áo dài is form-fitting and has a front and back flap. The right side of the dress has many hooks or buttons that are used to give the dress shape and it’s worn with long, loose pants that hug snugly around your waist. The áo dài is made out of light-weight and expensive materials such as velvet, silk, or satin. They come in many different colors and designs. Traditionally, Vietnamese women wear white as a symbol of innocence and youth. Thus, female students in Vietnam commonly wear a white áo dài to school. Red, on the other hand, is a symbol of love and maturity. It’s perfect for a woman to wear on her wedding day to celebrate the couple’s passion and romance. While some colors have deeper significance than others, Vietnamese society has become less traditional, allowing people to pick colors and fabrics that they think will suit them best.

Vietnamese clothing evolved alongside political and social change in Vietnam. While nobody truly knows when the áo dài was first introduced, the garment didn’t become popularized in Vietnam until 1744. At the time, Vietnam was divided into two regions: the north and south. The northern lords of Hanoi required subjects to wear a garment called áo giao lĩnh, which was a traditional cross-collared robe reminiscent of the robes worn by the Chinese of the Han Dynasty. In the south, civilians were required to wear trousers and a long silk gown. During the 19th century, southerners simplified their wardrobe by shortening the gown, which transformed it into the áo bà ba. Meanwhile, northerners began wearing what resembled more of what we know today as the modern áo dài.

While the áo dài is Vietnamese in its own right, its design is influenced by Chinese and French attire. Each time Vietnam was colonized, the áo dài went through changes in design. For thousands of years, China ruled over Vietnam (from 111 BC to 980 AD). The áo dài’s design incorporates Chinese fabrics and the traditional diagonal button closure of the garment, which may explain why the Vietnamese áo dài slightly resembles the traditional Chinese attire, qipao. Under French colonization from 1887-1954, the áo dài changed into a floor-length gown that had a tighter fit to show off a woman’s curvature. The new design required women to wear corsets. Many fashion designers at the time also incorporated lace, puffy sleeves, and an overall more Westernized feel to the traditional Vietnamese attire.

Between the end of French rule and today, more modifications had been made to the áo dài. Modern áo dài designs continue to take inspiration from Western fashion. Today, the garment is designed to delicately shift with the body to give the wearer an appearance of both modesty and sensuality.

Our áo dài is considered to be the child of both Eastern and Western cultures. The struggle to gain freedom from colonization is what led to the current design of the áo dài. Today’s áo dài represents Vietnamese pride, our people’s identity, individuality, beauty, and grace.

EMBRACING MY VIETNAMESE AMERICAN IDENTITY THROUGH MY ÁO DÀI

Yes, I am proud to be an American citizen and enjoy the democratic lifestyle here in the United States, but Vietnam is also my home. I moved away from Vietnam at the age of one, but it’s still a huge part of who I am. Truthfully, I used to be ashamed of being Vietnamese because it made me different from everyone else. I didn’t understand why on every special occasion my mom put me in an áo dài and I never wanted to pick up my parents’ phone calls because I didn’t want to speak Vietnamese in front of my friends. But now as I’ve become older, I am incredibly appreciative of my Vietnamese roots. I speak Vietnamese because I want to retain my language and I proudly don my áo dài with pride and elegance. Vietnam is the country in which my parents fell in love, where my siblings and I were born, where most of my family members still reside, and its language will forever be my mother tongue.

Hopefully, by now, you can understand why I’m deeply hurt by Miishka’s decision to appropriate my cultural clothing and exploit it as “oriental vintage” clothing. The áo dài has such a deep and meaningful background, having come about through more than a thousand years of colonization and struggle. I truly hope that all of you reading can feel my sincerity and understand my reasoning behind why I am taking a stand to reclaim the áo dài for Vietnamese people. — H.

Dear Miishka,

I am reclaiming my culture’s attire that you appropriated from us. This is how you wear a Vietnamese áo dài.

—Hamy Huynh

HAMY HUYNH is a third-year student majoring in Strategic Communications at the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities. Huynh is the current President of the Vietnamese Student Association of Minnesota (VSAM) and works as a content creator at CLAgency, a student-run communications agency on her college campus. In her spare time, she enjoys writing articles on her fashion and lifestyle blog, The Clothing Statement.

Learn more about Hamy and her blog:

Website: theclothingstatement.com

Instagram: theclothingstatement

Email: theclothingstatement@gmail.com