/ARTS WEEKLY/VIETNAM: Foreign Designers Come In, Locals Venture Out

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tran Dinh Thanh Lam

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Sep 23 2003 (IPS) - While more and more foreign designers are keen on coming to setting up shop in Vietnam, local ones are turning their eyes away from the local trade, saying the fashion market is still in its infancy stage.

These are the latest birthing pains that the Vietnamese fashion industry is undergoing, highlighting yet one more aspect of change that economic liberalisation and opening up to the world has brought to this country.

Just a decade old, the industry has been getting for several young designers prizes at various regional and international fashion competitions.

But it has yet to find a strong market at home, where consumers, especially young people, are being drawn to western brands, styles and images.

Local customers are not very interested in Vietnamese designers’ products – except for variations of the ‘ao dai’, the traditional dress that comprises a long tunic split up to the waist and worn over wide trousers.

”With three hundred U.S. dollars, I could have more sophisticated things from Gucci, Coco Banana,” says Le Nguyen Nhu Ngoc, discarding the Made-in-Vietnam clothes that a shop assistant shows her at a fashion shop on Nguyen Trai, one of the streets here known for their boutiques of luxury goods.

However, the Gucci and Coco Banana items that Nhu Ngoc refers to are in fact smuggled from Hong Kong, Shanghai or Bangkok – and that is why they can be sold at prices that young women like Ngoc can afford.

What they can only dream of getting stylish, haute couture products made in Vietnam by international fashion designers like Japan’s Takayuki, the United States’ White or France’s McKenzie.

Takayuki Sawamura first came to Ho Chi Minh City eight years ago. He was not planning to make Vietnam his home, but soon found that it was the ideal place to bring his designs to life.

”Many of my creations incorporate intricate embroidered motifs which can only be sewn by hand,” he says. ”It’s much more expensive to commission this kind of work in countries like Japan.”

Takayuki has already launched two haute couture labels, Opla and Thaca, out of his fashion boutique on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, one of Saigon’s chic quarters.

His designs tend to be more popular with expatriates working in Vietnam and local well-off shoppers, because they are made from luxurious fabrics. Takayuki is now hoping to expand his costumer base, providing to young Vietnamese ”a range of high-quality, value-for-money designs at a price they can afford”.

For Kimberly White, who hails from the United States, it is more than just the promise of cheap and highly skilled labour that drew her to set up her company, Jadora, in this city.

She says that living and working here provides her with a rich new source of inspiration. ”I’m continually fascinated by the unique creations of Vietnamese crafts workers,” she explains. ”I enjoy finding ways to give a contemporary twist in my work.”

Like White, French designer Valerie Gregori Mc Kenzie is bringing old and new, East and West together to produce stunning creations. She opened her Hanoi fashion boutique nine years ago and has recently established branches in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to top local designer Minh Hanh, with solid financial resources and experience of doing business in the global market, foreign designers can end up having the edge over their Vietnamese competitors.

However, she says, this should not be viewed as a negative development. ”The more international couturiers come to Vietnam, the more local designers will be inspired by new influences, and push themselves to compete,” said Minh Hanh, head of city’s Fashion Design Institute (Fadin).

One of Minh Hanh’s students, Pham Huyen Trang, has already from benefited from that healthy competition. Trang’s Co Tam shop here has more than a hundred items in stock, with prices ranging from 10 to 500 U.S. dollars.

”There is strong competition among young designers like me who want to win the hearts of fashion lovers overseas. But we have established our own niche,” Trang says.

Minh Hanh and her students have been working hard at putting the local fashion industry on the international fashion map, aiming for it someday be ranked alongside Paris, Tokyo, New York and Vienna.

Minh Hanh has already shown her collections at fashion festivals and fairs in France, Japan and Belgium and has sold many of her pieces to local customers.

Last year, Minh Hanh began exporting her designs to Los Angeles, marketed under the MH brand. Working closely with the Reper Troirs Showroom there, Minh Hanh frequently sends new collections for the dealer to market.

Young Ho Chi Minh City-based designer Le Minh Khoa has also begun exporting his collections. He settled his first deal earlier this year, selling his latest 80-garment wedding collection to a U.S. businessman.

”I think I understand what foreign customers want to see in new styles, particularly styles created by Asian designers like me,” says Khoa, who owns two fashion boutiques in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. ”The most important thing for me now is to find an overseas agent who can help me develop my business,” Khoa explains.