Ao Dai, Non La and Lacquer: Understanding Vietnamese Craft
What the conical hat is actually for, why the ao dai looks the way it does, and how to tell real Vietnamese lacquerware from the airport version. Vietnamese craft is easy to buy and hard to read. The same market stall sells a hand-painted lacquer bowl that took three weeks and a printed-transfer copy that took twenty minutes, at prices that differ by a factor of ten and look nearly identical under fluorescent light. Knowing a little about how these things are made changes what you bring home. The ao dai The ao dai — a long tunic split at the waist, worn over loose trousers — is the national dress, and its current form is surprisingly modern. The garment descends from the eighteenth- century ao ngu than , a five-panel robe, but the close-fitted silhouette people picture was designed in the 1930s by the Hanoi artist Cat Tuong, working under the name Le Mur, who narrowed the body, raised the collar and set the sleeves in the European way. It is worn now for weddings, Tet, formal occasions, and as a school and airline uniform. Regional differences persist: Hue keeps the most conservative cut and the purple silk that the city is associated with, while Saigon versions run brighter and shorter. If you want one, have it made. Tailors in Hoi An and Hanoi will cut to measure in one to three days, and a made-to-measure ao dai in decent silk costs a fraction of what an off-the-peg equivalent would in Europe. Ask for the fabric composition explicitly — a great deal of what is sold as sil…
- Published
- 2026-07-03
- Author
- Betel Editorial
