Quest for the Ultimate Ao Dai!!: My life experience -- Áo dài

Ao Dai -A goddess walking in the glinted shades of the tropical sunlight.

My life experience
I was born in 1930s

My beauty leaves a lasting impression to visitors who come to Vietnam. When they depart, they cannot forget the beauty of the women dressed in me. How charming I am! As you can see from the quote of Vietnamese writer, Vo Phien, "The áo dài both follows the beautiful lines of the body and flatters it by lending it a sense of fluid movement it does not have. There, the eye only sees the wind, the fluid grace, and the blithe fluttering."

However, I have gone through many ups and downs throughout my life. It was not until 1930 that the áo dài as you know really appeared. Influenced by the Europeanization wave in 1935, Vietnamese fashion designer Le Mur Nguyễn Cát Tường, modernized the áo dài. He lengthened the top to reach the floor, fitted the bodice to the curves for the body, and then moved the buttons from the front to an opening in the shoulder and added the side seam. That was when I was really born. The light-colored, close-fitting tunics featured longer panels, puffy sleeves, asymmetrical lace collars, buttoned cuffs, scalloped hems, and darts at the waist and chest, thus requiring a brassiere or corset. Lemur’s Europeanized flared pants were white with snugly tailored hips. During the the 1939-1945 period there was a conflict on an esthetic concept, resulting in the restoration of the traditional áo dài. Young girls' collar was from 4 cm to 7 cm high.

During the 1950’s, I was modified a great deal and the modern áo dài was born. Two Saigon tailors that had a

large influence on my development were Trần Kim from Thiết Lập Tailors and Dung from Dung Tailors. They produced the gowns with raglan sleeves which created a diagonal seam running from the collar to the underarm, and today this style is still preferred. From 1958 to the beginning of 1959, Madame Ngô Đình Nhu led the movement of low-necked, and a décolleté áo dài. I was most popular from 1960 to 1975. A brightly colored áo dài hippy was introduced in 1968.The áo dài mini, a version designed for practical use and convenience, had slits that extended above the waist and panels that reached only to the knee.

Be temporarily abandoned

In my lifetime, I had not always been favored by everybody. After 1954, In North Vietnam, Communist leaders criticized me as bourgeois, colonial, and impractical for manual labor, although women continued to wear me for special occasions.When I fell into disfavor in socialist Vietnam, Vietnamese who had migrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, or France preserved me as a symbol of their ethnic heritage . I was seen at fashion shows, Tết (Lunar New Year) celebrations, weddings, and musical performances throughout the Vietnamese communities of the world, which numbered approximately 2.6 million in 2006.

Revival

Since 1975, Leaders derided the southern áo dài as decadent and promoted simpler, practical clothing styles,so the traditional me returned. At that time, people encouraged schoolgirls to wear the white áo dài to school. Today, I am displayed in different fabrics such as satin, silk, velvet, suede, cotton, mesh, crepe, and ect.. The sleeves today are altered in diffenent styles such as halter, long sleeves, puffy sleeves, sleevless, and even off the shoulder. My length became shorter and went just below the knees. Variation in the neck cut, between boat and mandarin styles are now common and even adventurous alteration such as a scooped plunging neck-line, as well as square and heart-shaped necklines.