Fashionista Harry Nista: "I love the rustic cultural materials of my hometown"

VOV.VN - Harry Nista's real name is Nguyen Anh Tu, born in 2000 in Phu Yen. Standing out with his unique fashion style, combining feminine and masculine elements in the same outfit, Harry is also a "wizard" who can turn familiar objects from his hometown into fashionable outfits.

When wearing country style, Harry feels connected and confident.

PV: From being a flight attendant - a dream job for many people, what chance brought Harry to the fashion industry - a field that has never been trained?

Harry Nista: Harry graduated with a master's degree in Management and does not deny that flight attendant is a profession with many opportunities for development, but as our grandparents said: "The profession chooses the person". When working as a flight attendant, Harry had many opportunities to rub shoulders with the artistic environment and artists. From there, Harry's passion for the fashion industry was ignited in his heart. Then the climax that made Harry make a bold decision to completely switch to art activities was the saying of Mr. BB Tran: "As long as you have determination and passion, anyone can do it". That saying really inspired Harry. A few weeks later, Harry decided to quit his current job to follow the path of fashion without knowing what it would bring to Harry. The difficulty in "jumping" to a completely new environment is the balance between determination and finance, requiring Harry to keep the fire burning. The important thing is that Harry dared to go to the end of his passion.

Furthermore, Harry thinks family education is extremely important. From childhood to adulthood, Harry has always been trusted and accompanied by his parents. In particular, it was his grandmother who encouraged Harry to pursue fashion when she said: "Do what you like." Not only that, she also supported her grandson by participating in many fashion clips and was loved by many audiences.

PV: In his journey of creating fashion, Harry "transforms" home appliances and his mothers' traditional clothes into trendy outfits. Why did Harry choose this direction?

Harry Nista: Although he did not study fashion at any school, Harry instinctively knows how to extract the strengths of fashion trends around the world and combine them with his own fashion thinking to create his own "unique style". There is a motto that Harry often reminds himself: If you turn modern things into luxury, it is too ordinary, turning simple and familiar things into luxury, that is Harry Nista. Perhaps many foreign audiences like the uniqueness and creativity imbued with Vietnamese culture in Harry's designs.

Especially since Harry himself comes from the countryside, Harry loves the rustic, familiar cultural material of his hometown. That's why Harry wants to take what Harry loves, understands and is familiar with as his guiding principle when entering the fashion industry. If everyone sees, in addition to everyday items, Harry also often "plays" with the clothes of people around him such as grandparents, fathers, mothers and turns them into unique outfits. Because when wearing the countryside flavors on Harry, Harry feels a connection, as well as gives Harry the confidence to turn it into Harry's characteristic. Close but fashionable.

PV: Many people believe that Harry's creativity lies not only in his designs but also in his positive message about freedom of expression and breaking gender stereotypes in fashion. What was the most difficult thing for Harry when designing these outfits?

Harry Nista: Harry thinks that Harry is lucky to have an appearance that can "carry" both men's and women's clothing. However, Harry also understands that this will be Harry's strength and weakness. The strength is that it is new and attracts the attention of many people. The weakness is that because it is strange, there are many opposing views. In fact, Harry does not have to try to break stereotypes or do big things, Harry hopes to convey positive things, interesting styles so that people can believe that creativity in fashion is limitless, nor is it confined to any object and no matter who you are, you will still be beautiful in your own way.

As for the difficulty in creating genderless clothing, Harry thinks it is language. Here, it is the fashion language of tailoring, color, and style to express the beauty and value that the outfit brings. It is aesthetic but it also has to be trendy.

“Chieu Show” - Inspired by hand-woven sedge mats by the talented artisans of Dinh Yen sedge mat village.

Creativity in fashion has no limits.

PV: What advice does Harry have for young people who share the same passion for fashion, and want to introduce designs imbued with Vietnamese culture to international friends?

Harry Nista: Harry thinks that there will be a generation of all-around fashionistas of the GenZ generation. For example, Harry creates a trend and many people know in the fashion world that they will call him Fashionista. Harry once went viral thanks to the world-famous peacock blanket trend when performing on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City with "hot TikToker" Miles Moretti - the most prominent name in the trend of wearing Northeast floral patterned clothes. Surprisingly, there have been billions of views from all over the world. On Instagram, 90% of Harry's fans are international audiences. At first, when watching Harry's clips, many foreign audiences thought Harry was Chinese or Thai because the position of Vietnamese fashion in the world is still small, but later, when watching many clips, people learned more about Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese fashion. Harry thinks that young people should live their lives to the fullest with their passion, persevere, learn and constantly stumble to stand up again, nothing is impossible.

PV: So what makes Harry happiest in his creative journey in 2024? What are Harry's plans for 2025?

Harry Nista: If I were to call it an achievement in 2024, I think it would be the support and love of everyone. Harry has fans, Harry also knows that there are people who like his genderless style, his designs. Harry has companions who are brothers and sisters in the fashion and creative fields to give Harry advice and lessons. And especially, having family and neighbors who always support and help Harry feel secure in pursuing this path.

In 2025, Harry will also make strides towards internationalization with familiar, simple Vietnamese materials such as rattan, bamboo, baskets. In the near future, Harry will visit some countries such as China, Thailand, India, America... During this Tet holiday, Harry will go to China to collaborate with supermodel Lu Kaigang on the theme of Asian Tet. Harry revealed a little bit that Harry is preparing for Que Show - this is also a series that Harry posted on TikTok and received a lot of support. But this time, Que Show will have a more upgraded version, Harry will bring it from the TikTok screen to the Runway and step out as a designer and Creative Director.

PV: Thank you Harry for sharing!

Harry owns a Tiktok channel with more than 800,000 members, an Instagram channel with about 500,000 members, and a Youtube channel with 153,000 members. Harry Nista was just nominated in the 2024 We Choice Awards as a Gen Z fashion content creator.