Vietnamese traditional dresses - Ao dai: History

Each country has at least its own traditional costume and people are proud of it. You can recognize person’s nationality from his or her traditional costume. In my country, Vietnam, one of the traditional Vietnamese costumes is Ao Dai, the national costume of the Vietnamese people. It’s easy to say: Ao Dai is Vietnam and Vietnam is Ao dai. Each Vietnamese woman has at least Ao Dai and we are proud of our traditional dress. The Ao Dai both follows the beautiful lines of the body and flatters it by lending it a sense of fluid movement it doesn’t have.
Up to now, the true origin of the Ao Dai is mysterious. There are many different stories about Ao Dai history. According to tradition, the Trung sisters wore two-flapped ao dai on the battlefield, mounted on the backs of elephants, when they fought the Chinese invaders. In Vietnamese custom, one often avoids having similar accouterments or names as someone one respects so Vietnamese women started wearing the ao tu than instead of the two-flapped ao dai to show their respect and admiration for the Trung sisters. In the 18th century, during the rule of the Nguyen lords in the South, Lord Nguyen Phuc Khoat, had the people of his dominions dress differently than the people of the North in order to develop a sense of independence (the North, where women wore ao tu than, was under the rule of the Trinh lords). Women were to wear a dress with a high collar that had the front and back of the dress sewn together with seams running down from under the arms. So the ao dai was born, its design a compromise between its origins in the North and its reintroduction in the South.
According to another version, in 1744 when Lord Vu Vuong of the Nguyen Dynasty decreed both men and women should wear an ensemble of trousers and a gown that buttoned down the front. (Ellis). However, some historians have suggested that the Ao Dai was an evolution of the ancient four-flapped tunic (ao tu than), one of the well known Vietnamese traditional dresses. Some other historians advocated that because of influence of Chinese culture and a costume the early 1700s, the Ao Dai was an evolution of Qipao, imperial Chinese garb of the Qing dynasty. Nevertheless, there are some differences between Ao Dai and Qipao; Qipao consists of the slit on both sides, but the slit only goes up to mid-tight whereas the slit in Ao Dai goes all the way to the waist. Besides, Ao Dai must be worn with the silk pants whereas Qipao doesn’t
The ao dai is very simple. It has long sleeves, a high mandarin collar, with hidden buttons from the collar down in front of the shoulder, underneath the arm and along the side down to the waist. At the waist, the dress slits into front and back flap. The flaps are the same length, down to the knees or longer. Ao dai can be worn with loose-fitting black or white pants. From design of the Ao Dai, almost Vietnamese people believe that Ao Dai was an evolution of the ancient four-flapped tunic (ao tu than).
However, the closest form to the Ao Dai was ao ngu than (five- part dress). The five- part dress had a major difference from the modern Ao Dai in the way it was made. 1800s the five- part dress were made of five parts: This consisted of two flaps sewn together in the back, two flaps sewn together in the front, and a fifth flap hidden underneath the front main flap. This five-part Ao Dai was similar to its current incarnation in that it still appears to be a two-flapped tunic with slits on both sides, but the front and back flap were generally much broader, and of course the dress was much more loosely fit.
Going with the time stream, the Ao Dai has modernized more and more. “In 1930, the Vietnamese fashion designer Cát Tường, known to the French as Monsieur Le Mur, modified it. He lengthened the Ao Dai so that the top reached the floor, and made it fit the curves of the body closer. With the import of an abundance of foreign fabrics in 20th century Vietnam, including broader fabric, the modernized Ao Dai required less material to be made and as a result the flaps also became generally slimmer. In Saigon during the 1950s, Tran Kim of Thiet Lap Tailors and Dung of Dung Tailors modified the Ao Dai to a form closest to what is seen today. He produced the gowns with raglan sleeves, creating a diagonal seam that runs from the collar to the underarm. Ao Dai only continued to become more form-fitting with time.” In the 1960s the collarless Ao Dai style was popularized by the infamous Madame Nhu, a political figure of the 1950s and 1960s. After that, many collarless styles, such as the square neck, the sweetheart neck, have designed. Those styles showed the beauty of women’s slender neck and a white throat.
Despite the two major modifications to the Ao Dai in the 20th century, it has also seen slight changes throughout each decade as fashion changes constantly. Everything from floral to checkered patterns, the use of transparent fabrics, the tunic length being largely reduced or lengthened, has all been seen throughout different eras of Vietnamese history.
Not only the Ao Dai style but also the sort of fabric has changed. Many designers went on improving sorts of fabric, such as Ha Dong silk, Thai silk, soft domestically-produced fabric, muslin, etc. Along with a number of artists, they created the Ao Dai with hand drawn designs which made women look more mature and charming. The pant, worn with Ao Dai, is not only black or white but also other colors. Wearers are interesting in how to merge color of dress and pant. The Vietnamese women wear this dress with high heeled shoes making women higher and thinner, and making their step lighter and gracefully.