Vietnamese youths starting a fashion revolution
HANOI - Pham Thi Vinh, a traditional Vietnamese matron, didn't mince words when she saw the young woman in a black halter top
that exposed more of her back than it covered. ``Look at her!'' the 84-year-old Vinh said, her voice thick with disgust. ``People my
age really hate clothes like that!'' Told of Vinh's tirade, the object of her wrath was unfazed.
``I'm an aggressive girl,'' declared Truong Bich Huong, 27. ``I don't care what people say. I wear what I want to wear. I do what I want
to do.'' As they absorb the fast-changing Vietnamese fashion scene, members of Vinh's generation have more and more to shake
their heads about: For a growing number of young, urban Vietnamese women like Huong, skin is in.
The new fashions aren't just helping young Vietnamese, who follow the latest trends online, keep pace with their counterparts
elsewhere in the world. They also highlight the nation's pronounced generation gap. When Vinh was a young woman, she and her
friends knew how to dress: conservatively, with every inch of their flesh covered. No exposed legs. No exposed arms. And, needless
to say, no exposed bellybuttons.
Like Vinh, older Vietnamese women generally wear loose-fitting pants and blouses made of silk, cotton or linen. Many wear the
conical straw hats that, over the generations, have become a national symbol of Vietnam. Men and women going to the office tend
to wear conservative Western-style dresses and suits, usually in dark colors or earth tones.
Much of what the younger generation wears these days would be no big deal in the United States or Europe - hip-hugger jeans,
halter tops, short pants, short skirts, see-through blouses, even the occasional tattoo or bellybutton ring. But here in Vietnam,
where many people still consider a bare shoulder to be risque, the new look is downright radical. And parents who see their children
decked out in such attire - especially the first time - are often horrified.
For teenagers and twentysomethings in the United States and other Western countries, defying one's elders is something of a
national sport. But here in Vietnam, there is no greater duty for the young than to show respect for their elders. So when it comes to
matters of fashion, some young Vietnamese lead a double life: a Martha Stewart look at home, a Britney Spears look on the street.
To please Mom and Dad, for instance, a young woman might layer a conservative blouse over a skimpy top with a plunging neckline.
But as soon as she's out of the neighborhood - and out of her parents' sight - off comes the frumpy top.
``Girls in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City want to wear very revealing clothes, but they are afraid of their parents,'' said Do Thi Hoa, 26,
editor of a Hanoi-based youth Web site. ``They put their long-sleeve shirt back on when they return home.''
The first time Hoa's father saw her in a pair of tight, low-cut jeans, he had a fit. ``He yelled at me all day long. He blamed it on my
mother,'' she said. ``He said she didn't teach me to be a good girl.'' Hoa's former boss started to sputter and fume just because she
showed up at work in a skirt cut an inch or two above her knees. He blew up at another young woman because she wore a
short-sleeved shirt.
Older men like Hong Phu Thanh, 72, are baffled by young people and their strange new tastes. He thinks women look best in a
conservatively cut ao dai, the flowing silk pantsuit, usually brightly colored, that Vietnamese women generally wear on formal
occasions. ``The young girls are showing too much skin,'' Thanh said. ``They're not traditional like they used to be.''
Today, more than half of Vietnam's population is younger than 25. This generation has no direct memories of the war that shaped
the lives of their parents and grandparents, and they are coming of age in more affluent times. In a nation where per capita income is
still around $420, most people cannot afford to indulge in the latest fashions. And, while fashion consciousness is growing among
the wealthier set, it is still not unusual to see people wearing patterns that clash so badly they can unleash a bad case of vertigo.
In Vietnam as in the rest of the world, men are generally less fashion-focused than women. But even some young men are beginning
to pay more attention to what they wear. Some are adopting a sort of American skateboarder look. And some, like their female
counterparts, are dyeing their hair red. One young man who lives across the street from Thanh wears jeans that he has intentionally
torn and frayed. ``It looks ugly - terrible,'' Thanh said.
Thanh's outfit - a stained undershirt and a pair of skimpy pajama bottoms - isn't likely to win him any fashion awards, either. In fact,
if he's not careful, he could get fined by Hanoi's fashion police. The bureaucrats at the city's Civilized Living Department have
recently begun a campaign to clean up Hanoi's streets. Among other things, they are talking about enforcing a rarely invoked law
that prohibits men from wearing pajamas outdoors - a practice enjoyed by many elderly Hanoians, who see the skimpy outfits as a
way to beat the tropical heat.
There are no laws on the books regulating what young women can wear. But Nguyen Hai, the 50-year-old head of Civilized Living,
isn't pleased by what he sees these days. ``Traditional Vietnamese clothes are not revealing,'' he said. Such somber
pronouncements are unlikely to deter Nguyen Thu Huyen, a 22-year-old university student whose more conservative outfits would
probably make Hai gasp.
On a recent Saturday night - the time when young women like Huyen fully indulge their more daring fashion predilections - Huyen
wore an unimaginably tight pair of jeans and a skimpy top that fully revealed her cleavage, her bellybutton and a delicate rose tattoo
on her shoulder. When she and three of her similarly outfitted friends walked into a bar, a table full of men rotated their heads like
owls.
``My favorite thing to wear is a low-cut shirt, sometimes with no bra,'' Huyen said. ``Sometimes I even dare to wear very, very short
shorts.'' With more and more women like Huyen on the streets these days, life is growing increasingly dangerous for young men
like Dang Viet Hai An, a 21-year-old Hanoian who, with red streaks in his hair and loose-fitting American-style jeans, travels among
the fashionable set.
He recently was driving his Honda through the sea of motorbikes that clog the Hanoi streets, which are difficult to negotiate even
when one is fully focused on the task. A young woman cruised by in pants so low-slung that An couldn't take his eyes off her.
Riveted by the floral pattern on her underwear, he crashed his motorbike. ``I stared at her too long,'' he said.
By Ben Stocking - Knight Ridder Newspapers - September 4, 2003
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