Áo dài

Portrait of Tôn Thất Hiệp (1653–1675). He is dressed in a cross-collared robe (áo giao lĩnh) which was commonly worn by all social castes of Vietnam before the 19th century

For centuries, peasant women typically wore a halter top (yếm) underneath a blouse or overcoat, alongside a skirt (váy).[7] Aristocrats, on the other hand, favored a cross-collared robe called áo giao lĩnh, which bore resemblance to historical Vietnamese clothing.[8][9] When the Ming dynasty occupied Đại Việt during the Fourth Era of Northern Domination in 1407, it forced the women to wear Chinese-style pants. The following Lê dynasty also criticized women for violating Confucian dress norms, but only enforced the dress code haphazardly, so skirts and halter tops remained the norm. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnam was divided into northern and southern realms, with the Nguyễn lords ruling the south.[10] To distinguish the southern people from the northerners, in 1744, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát of Huế decreed that both men and women at his court wear trousers and a gown with buttons down the front.[5][lower-alpha 2] The members of the southern court were thus distinguished from the courtiers of the Trịnh Lords in Hanoi, who wore áo giao lĩnh with long skirts.[8]

According to Lê Quý Đôn's record in the book "Phủ Biên Tạp Lục" (recording most of the important information about the economy and society of Đàng Trong for nearly 200 years), the Áo dài (or rather, the forerunner of the Áo dài) created by Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát based on Chinese Ming Dynasty costumes, by how to learn the method of making costumes in the book "Sāncái Túhuì" as the standard.[11]

The áo ngũ thân (five part dress) had two flaps sewn together in the back, two flaps sewn together in the front, and a "baby flap" hidden underneath the main front flap. The gown appeared to have two-flaps with slits on both sides, features preserved in the later ao dai. Compared to a modern ao dai, the front and back flaps were much broader and the fit looser and much shorter. It had a high collar and was buttoned in the same fashion as a modern ao dai. Women could wear the dress with the top few buttons undone, revealing a glimpse of their yếm underneath.

• Vietnamese garments throughout the centuries
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  Tran dynasty robes as depicted in a section of a 14th-century scroll
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  Left: Illustration of a Vietnamese man (left) wearing the predecessor of áo dài in Sancai Tuhui, early 17th century during the Giao Chi or Jiaozhi era.
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  "Giảng học đồ" (Teaching), 18th century, Hanoi museum of National History. Scholars and students wear cross-collared gowns (áo giao lĩnh) - unlike the buttoned áo dài
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  Two women wear áo ngũ thân, the form of the ao dai worn in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries illustrated on a postcard
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  Trần Anh Tông wearing a "áo viên lĩnh" and outside a "áo giao lĩnh" in the calligraphy paintingTrúc Lâm đại sĩ xuất sơn đồ (The painting of Trúc Lâm the Great Master),14th century.
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  Nón lá & Áo dài
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  Áo Dài during Tết

Statue of Our Lady of La Vang, Phat Diem Cathedral

Áo dài worn by two ladies of Hà Nội in 1950

Áo dài in Sài Gòn (1955 - 1960s)

Huế's Đồng Khánh Girl's High School, which opened in 1917, was widely praised for the ao dai uniform worn by its students.[12] The first modernized ao dai appeared at a Paris fashion show in 1921. In 1930, Hanoi artist Cát Tường, also known as Le Mur, designed a dress inspired by the áo ngũ thân and by Paris fashions. It reached to the floor and fit the curves of the body by using darts and a nipped-in waist.[13] When fabric became inexpensive, the rationale for multiple layers and thick flaps disappeared. Modern textile manufacture allows for wider panels, eliminating the need to sew narrow panels together. The áo dài Le Mur, or "trendy" ao dai, created a sensation when model Nguyễn Thị Hậu wore it for a feature published by the newspaper Today in January 1935.[14] The style was promoted by the artists of Tự Lực văn đoàn ("Self-Reliant Literary Group") as a national costume for the modern era.[15] The painter Lê Phô introduced several popular styles of ao dai beginning in 1934. Such Westernized garments temporarily disappeared during World War II (1939–45).

In the 1950s, Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) designers tightened the fit of the ao dai to create the version commonly seen today.[5] Trần Kim of Thiết Lập Tailors and Dũng of Dũng Tailors created a dress with raglan sleeves and a diagonal seam that runs from the collar to the underarm.[5] Madame Nhu, first lady of South Vietnam, popularized a collarless version beginning in 1958. The ao dai was most popular from 1960 to 1975.[16] A brightly colored áo dài hippy was introduced in 1968.[17] The áo dài mini, a version designed for practical use and convenience, had slits that extended above the waist and panels that reached only to the knee.[13]

The ao dai has always been more common in the South than in the North. The communists, who gained power in the North in 1954 and in the South in 1975, had conflicted feelings about the ao dai. They praised it as a national costume and one was worn to the Paris Peace Conference (1969–73) by Vietcong negotiator Nguyễn Thị Bình.[18] Yet Westernized versions of the dress and those associated with "decadent" Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) of the 1960s and early 1970s were condemned.[19] Economic crisis, famine, and war with Cambodia combined to make the 1980s a fashion low point.[20] The ao dai was rarely worn except at weddings and other formal occasions, with the older, looser-fitting style preferred.[19] Overseas Vietnamese, meanwhile, kept tradition alive with "Miss Ao Dai" pageants (Hoa Hậu Áo Dài), the most notable one held annually in Long Beach, California.[5]

The ao dai experienced a revival beginning in late 1980s, when state enterprise and schools began adopting the dress as a uniform again.[5] In 1989, 16,000 Vietnamese attended a Miss Ao Dai Beauty Contest held in Ho Chi Minh City.[21] When the Miss International Pageant in Tokyo gave its "Best National Costume" award to an ao dai-clad Trường Quỳnh Mai in 1995, Thời Trang Trẻ (New Fashion Magazine) claimed that Vietnam's "national soul" was "once again honored".[22] An "ao dai craze" followed that lasted for several years and led to wider use of the dress as a school uniform.[23]