April 30th - Vietnamese Day of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification 

Also in honor of the upcoming update that brings Áo Dài into the school uniform system! Hehe, I'm full-on nationalist mode right now!

Sending my regards to Vrel, the devs, and the contributors!

Tet is near, have the whole gang in áo dài 🍾🇻🇳

Here’s a bunch of early pieces from The Magic Fish. Some of them are concept art, some made it into the book, and some are unpublished. Enjoy!

hi gamers today we're talking about áo dài / nhật bình

áo dài (meaning "long clothes") like a dress- wear em on graduation, festivals, weddings, dinner, work, school, into the woods

nhật bình (meaning "square-collared") is a nguyễn dynasty costume (red was for princesses i guess) anyway dynasty fashion is IN!

old tam scribbles ^-^

An Ode to the Áo Dài

The traditional Vietnamese garment, which translates to “long shirt,” has been reimagined as a modern heirloom, writes author Thao Thai.

[...]

When Kelly Marie Tran wore an áo dài designed by Thái Nguyễn to the Oscars in 2022, this moment created a magnificent stir, both among Americans and Vietnamese people of the diaspora who’d never seen our national garment represented on a red carpet. It was, in so many ways, a kind of permission to exist outside of the margins, to have our culture spotlit without explanation or apology.

Nguyễn remembers receiving a phone call from Tran, who asked if it was possible to create an áo dài in three days. He said, “[That call] woke me up.” After 16 hours of work, the team at Thái Nguyễn Atelier finished the áo dài hours before the award show. Nguyễn describes the way that American PR companies and buyers once told him that his name and identity were too ethnic; they didn’t think an áo dài would ever be a mainstream garment. “I’ve been yearning for that moment,” Nguyễn says, recalling the first time he saw Tran at the Oscars. “Afterward, a Vietnamese follower sent me a photo of her five-year-old daughter in an áo dài and said, ‘She can wear this now to a birthday party, instead of a Cinderella or Snow White gown.’” In fact, Nguyễn is co-writing Mai’s Ao Dai, a children’s book about a girl who discovers the beauty of áo dài, with Vietnamese American writer Monique Truong. Such representation is already changing the way younger generations are embracing the áo dài.

Full article.

Drew Irey, Mar'i and Lian wearing outfits in honor of their respective heritage

💛💜💙

it's good to be back

ALI WONG at the 2023 Time 100 Gala on April 26th 2023 wearing THAI NGUYEN ATELIER

Ali wore an Áo Dài and I have nothing but great things to say. I love that she chose a traditional look from her culture, what better time than the Time 100 Gala. The outfit is just beautiful. All the details and craftsmanship are so intricate. The look is just stunning, it was the perfect choice for Ali.

theres a new sneaky update! Ao Dai is now an acceptable school uniform

The Vietnamese group got this! TIME TO ASSERT MY DOMINANCE

Pieces from the project, “Portraits of Áo Dài”, by Chiron Dương

An Ode To Vietnam And Its Women by Chiron Duong 

1) traditional style ao dai 

2) knee-length ao dai worn with a dickey collar and skirt

3) off shoulder ao dai- big fan of the traditional collar+raglan sleeves but i really like seeing different styles of ao dai

4) found a wedding ao dai on poshmark that looked like my mom’s

5) wanted to look like an easter egg

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone that celebrates!

For the past few weeks I've been working on a customized áo dài with a skeleton pattern inspired by Bá Nguyệt's ghost form. It has one "exposed" sleeve and the rest of the form are layered under thin silk to create a veiled shadow of the full skeleton.

Art accidentally captured in the background is by Kevin Sabo.

Customization process summary under the cut.

A simple graph of steps I went through to customize the áo dài.

This is how the áo dài appeared at the beginning. It is a typical modernized áo dài for men, with tay chẽn (sleeve cuffs fit to wearer's wrists) sleeves, a straight form, and running button line down the right chest. My plan is to adapt it to look more like an áo ngũ thân tay chẽn, which means the left lap of the áo has to reach the right shoulder and armpit, instead of middle of right chest.

I began with tucking the left lap under the right lap and sewing the two sides together, turning the áo dài into a long shirt.

Then I painted the skeleton pattern onto the front, back and two sleeves of the áo dài with bleach. This took about 4 full days: the actual painting time took less, but I let it dry overnight after finishing every part.

By this time, the silk I ordered for a 2nd layer had come in. I cut the piece for the front piece. This would be sewn to the left shoulder, left armpit, and the left half of the neckline. It'd be left open on the right side so it can be closed by buttoning. I actually sewed the silk onto the áo dài, but then realized the color of the two types of fabric do not match up. The silk I ordered is black, but the base áo dài is a near-black dark navy. My first reaction is to get blue acid dye and give the silk layer a blue wash and turn it into a more navy color. Turning the base áo dài black would have been more ideal, but I already bleach-drew on it. Anyway, this doesn't work, considering the silk is already saturated with color (black), so I got black dye to spot dye the base áo dài, avoiding the bleach drawing. When I washed it to bleed out the extra dye, the dye washed over the bleach drawing anyway, but this is something I could live with.

I carried on to make the silk sleeve to go around the left sleeve. This ended up being shorter than the sleeve of the áo dài because I ran out of silk, so I hemmed the base sleeves to better match the silk sleeves. Thankfully, the original sleeves were too long anyway, so it ends up the right length after hemming.

I cut out the back silk piece. The front, sleeve and back pieces are sewn together first before onto the base áo dài. Then I added buttons (mock pearls) to the base áo dài, at the collar, right collarbone, and two more on the right side of the áo. Traditionally, there should be 5 buttons (collar, collarbone, and 3 down the side) but since the side of this modern áo dài is shorter, only 2 are needed.

This isn't pictured in the diagram, but I ended up retouching the bleach drawings where they were too washed out from the dye. DONE!