PARIS by night WHO’S THAT GIRL?
RUNAWAY to the city of lights, where Vietnam’s exiled refugees created their own take on the Parisian cabaret, bringing the tradition and spice of Saigon to a completely new, extravagant lifestyle -- on screen and off.
SHE DINES
At Chào Bà, for a bowl of pho, but insists her driver takes her around to Ladurée for dessert. She enjoys a baguette, but prefers freshly made bánh mì, when she can find it. Her weekends are spent living lavishly - only the best restaurants, with the people meant to see and be seen, but there’s always enough time for fam ily and ba noi’s bun bo hue and xoi gac.
SHE SHOPS On the Champs-Élysées when she’s feeling the three L’s: Ladurée, Louis Vuitton, and Longchamp; on the Rue Saint-Honoré when she’s looking for hot chocolate from Angelina and the likes of Chantal Thomass and Christian Louboutin; and the Rue Cambon, when she needs to pay a visit to her favorite of them all, Chanel. Her sales associates know her by name, though that’s no surprise considering the size of her closet. She adores her gems and finds herself often wearing diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, along with the traditional Vietnamese jade.
SHE LIVES In her stilettos and her collection of fabulous footwear, but also in her apartment on Avenue Montaigne. Despite being one of the most classic addresses in France, her apartment is anything but. Classic, luxurious French decor is juxtaposed against traditional Vietnamese lacquer mother of pearl wall hangings and oriental rugs. The clash of cultures really shouldn’t work and perhaps a classic French girl would turn her nose up at the absurd thought of designing an apartment with such polar opposite design aesthetics, but she couldn’t care less. Her charming, yet somewhat eccentric personality somehow makes it work and brings it all together.
SHE WORKS As some combination of socialite and Vietnamese songbird on Paris by Night. Her melodic voice captures audiences and has made her an icon in both the refugee and ex-pat community, but also in Vietnam itself, despite the govern ment’s attempts to ban the program. Her face is plastered on posters, DVDs, marquees, and advertisements for her romantic, dramatic, ballads. After her rise to fame, she found herself in French high society. She had a brief fling with her duet partner, the exact type of Vietnamese man her ba noi warned her about. Being the firecracker she is, she cut ties, wandered around the city a bit lost in the style of Audrey Hepburn á la Roman Holiday, and found herself in love with a French heir much more suitable to her, and her ba noi’s, taste.
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P C ES A E artist
A young girl and her siblings leave everything behind, escaping their once calm, familiar tropical lifestyle. “Hurry, hurry, faster,” Duc rushed to Kim Ngân. She turned around, giving her home in Vietnam one last glance under the cloak of darkness. Saigon was a different city during the night: calmer, more peaceful. At least, that was before the war. On nights like this escaping Saigon felt more like a real life video game than it did the bustling tropical capital of Vietnam. Nights of late parties and days spent picking the mango trees seemed as though they were a foreign dream, instead of just a few years ago. Kim Ngân’s life wasn’t always like this. Just a few weeks ago, she was a happy teenager living out her days carefree. Life in Vietnam was good, life was easy. She had a driver to bring her to school and maids to clean up her messes. Then the communists came, the Americans entered, and life as she knew it was blowing up around her -- literally. Kim Ngân’s family couldn’t take it any longer.
Her dad called in favors, and with that, her and her siblings were escaping out of Vietnam. Her father may have called the favor in, but only Kim Ngân and her siblings would escape tonight. Kim Ngân’s par ents would stay behind, to aid the extended fam ily in escaping. When ever one was out, they would leave. The des tination was un determined, but it didn’t matter. Anything to get out of the warzone, any thing to escape the communist regime. The plan was Indonesia. Indonesia to America, or Indonesia to Europe. Somewhere, sometime, Kim Ngân and her siblings would see their parents again. . Kim Ngân touched the string of pearls around her neck, one of the few belongings she was allowed to take, and turned away. With that, she ran away from the only home she ever knew.
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handpainted silk chiffon gown
Trumpet gown with pearl beading in handpainted silk
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1 2 - 08 Mandarin collar gown in handpainted silk with pearl detail
Jewelry is frequently passed between generations as gifts or through inheritances. Jewelry carries a history, and a meaning to the family. Family heirlooms can differ greatly in type and may or may not be as valuable when it comes to pure resale value, however in my family, it holds a value even more significant as part of our family history. For this piece of jewelry, that is especially true. According to my father my grandmother may have been from a prominent family in Vietnam, however with the conversion rate from the Vietnamese currency, the Đong, to United States Dollars, that didn’t mean much. She came to this country with nothing except for her children and husband, but built the family from the ground up. My grandmother could spot a diamond in a sea of cubic zirconia, however it wouldn’t be for several years after her arrival that she could afford them, hence the glass pearls instead of genuine. Since ancient times, pearls have been seen as a status symbol, which makes sense as to why they have been replicated through glass and cultivation. Genuine pearls are amongst the rarest gems in the world. Pearls form typically when a parasite invades a oyster, mussel, or clam. The coating the invaded organism produces in defense is called nacre. This coating is produced layer by layer until a pearl is formed.
Pearls began seeing replication in the 13th century across many countries. At this time, Rome, China, and Venice were the leaders in faux pearl creation. Each had a different method of achieving the pearl lustre, however the goal was essentially the same: to create a low cost pearl that would be available to a wide audience. These pearls were easily available to the middle class, and even wealthy women would wear them to save their finer pearls for special occasions. Eventually, the Venice pearl trade banned all imitation pearls. The genuine pearl craftsmen felt threatened by the rise of the faux pearl trade.
diamond in a sea of cubic zirconia”
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Glass pearls were frequently used in jewelry, and as embellishment on dresses, skirts, and other garments. Their use today remains very similar. Despite Venice’s attempts to slow the glass pearl industry, they are used widespread throughout many different cultures around the world. Just like my grandmother’s glass pearl necklace from over 40 years ago, pearl necklaces are still a popular piece of heirloom jewelry.
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My fundamental belief, is that our clothing holds some of our most important, and sentimental memories. Whether it’s the moment a high schooler finds her perfect prom dress after being at a mall for hours with her mother, or a bride when she steps into a wedding gown for the first time, our clothing can bring us joy. When I look into my closet, I see the dress I wore to my high school graduation, the scarf that went almost halfway across the world with me on my first solo trip, and the skirt I lived in the first time I came to New York City, for an audition that would change my life. It may sound cheesy or materialistic, but it’s the truth. My goal in my work is to bring more people those moments. More moments of the perfect dress that makes you feel like a princess, more moments of looking back and laughing when you see the sweater you wore on the best and worst first date you’ve ever had. That’s why for this project, I chose an item that is rich in sentimental value and history for both myself and my family. Through exploring my grandmother’s pearl necklace, I aimed to highlight her love for all things feminine and sassy, as well as the strength she showcased escaping her homeland. I chose to use fonts that balancing a strong serif font with a looser, more romantic calligraphy font. Calligraphy is a prominent part of Vietnamese culture, and is strictly taugh and enforced through school for Vietnamese children. The use of watercolor is a nod to my grandmother’s love for the romantic and feminine, and is also used to capture the lustre and value of the pearls in the necklace.
k N KIM NGÂN