Designer Nguyen Viet Hung: Preserving identity, weaving love

Designer Nguyen Viet Hung (center) sends love to Hue through new collections

Designer Nguyen Viet Hung (center) sends love to Hue through new collections

REPORTER: Your story is attached to the ao dai like destiny?

Designer NGUYEN VIET HUNG: Since entering the fashion industry, I have always set myself the mission of loving, serving, and spreading the value of Ao Dai. I have been to dozens of different countries and that is also my journey of bringing Ao Dai, the image of Vietnam with its rich identity to friends around the world. I am attached to Ao Dai because it is a family tradition, because I miss the image of my mother who is always associated with this dress. I cannot imagine a day when I will be apart from Ao Dai, because it is my blood and flesh, the love of my life. I love Ao Dai so much that I rarely rest. I do not feel tired, but the more I work, the more I feel that there are many interesting and fascinating things about my homeland's dress.

Recently, you brought hundreds of Ao Dai sets to give to female teachers in remote areas in the Central Highlands provinces. What do you want to convey through this “Ao Dai Journey”?

I have been doing this project for 16 years, about 5,000-10,000 ao dai sets each year. I want to share beautiful, high-quality ao dai sets with teachers. I only have a sincere wish to let teachers everywhere feel that there is always love sent to them. I always choose teachers in remote areas because they are the ones who work harder, sacrifice more, and despite facing many hardships, they have never complained. Being a teacher is very hard, I understand, sympathize and want to give them special respect.

You have just released two collections: Thuong nho ngu than (Remembering the Five Relatives) and Dem lang sen (Sen Village Night). What was the special inspiration for you to create these two collections?

The collection "Thuong nho ngu than" has nearly 40 designs, inspired by Hue's five-panel ao dai. I bring in fashion elements and modern tailoring techniques to help create a tight-fitting dress, enhancing the curves of women's figures; aiming to "rejuvenate" the five-panel design because I personally hope this dress will be more accepted by young people. The advantage of the five-panel dress is to hide the flaws of those who lack confidence in their figure. Many young people today do not like to wear loose, unflattering clothes because they do not see themselves in them. I think, innovating the five-panel dress to create a more modern design, suitable for more people's tastes. In addition to applying new tailoring techniques, I also recreate exclusive materials from weaving to dyeing, embroidering typical patterns in architecture, fine arts... to create new, more beautiful materials that are not duplicated.

Lotus is a typical flower of Hue, mentioned by many people when talking about the ancient capital. From this inspiration, I created the collection Sen Village Night. On the velvet material, I wanted to recreate a sparkling moonlit night full of stars, conveyed through 21 designs. This is also the first time I painted lotus on glitter velvet after making tens of thousands of lotus ao dai. My team and I used the art of realistically painting lotus. Thanks to the team of skilled artisans, each design is like a work of art conveying the image of lotus spreading its fragrance in the starry night, with immense depth.

According to you, what should be noted when innovating the ao dai?

The Ao Dai has been associated with the image of Vietnamese people for a long time, containing the spirit of the people, homeland, and country. Not only now but for many years, I think there is always a need for creativity and innovation to suit the needs of modern times. Innovation must be unique, it is necessary to know how to utilize and experiment with materials to see the diversity of the Ao Dai. The important thing is that innovation and variation must be appropriate, not excessive, going far from the standards and customs of our country.

Recently, a group of young people paraded in traditional Vietnamese costumes in Hue, but many people said that some of them wore inappropriate costumes. Young people are conscious of looking for old values, but how do you think this journey can really go into depth?

The fact that young people care about and love the cultural heritage values of our country, especially the Ao Dai, ancient costumes, and make efforts to organize projects, in my opinion, is very valuable. At festivals in Ho Chi Minh City such as the Ao Dai Festival in Ho Chi Minh City, the Green Hair Festival, the Ao Dai Flap..., you have grand parades with thousands of people, arousing love for the Ao Dai, traditional costumes, ancient costumes... The above story also shows the love of young people for heritage. But perhaps, due to haste, the situation of wearing the wrong costumes as reported happened. I think, it is important to have a common, easy-to-search database to support and help young people reflect and not make mistakes again.

How do you maintain your identity?

The Ao Dai in particular and traditional costumes in general are part of Vietnamese identity. To love, maintain and spread the identity is not an easy journey. For me, it is an effort to create designs, collections and especially educate young people. I often share the preservation and development of Vietnamese identity in lectures for students in the classes I teach. I create collections and projects that are not simply for entertainment or business but always aim at the great value behind the Ao Dai. I research culture and history very carefully so that when creating new designs, I truly bring a new breeze that is always imbued with Vietnamese character.

Performed by TIEU TAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nha-thiet-ke-nguyen-viet-hung-giu-ban-sac-det-yeu-thuong-post803548.html