W.Minh Tuan

(According to Hanoi Moi newspaper)

The French came to colonize Vietnam around the 1850s, and brought with them French culture, French style, French economy, French administrative management, and the organizational structure of the State apparatus in the French style, and French language. French entered Vietnam, but still did not destroy the ancient Vietnamese cultural identity.

It can be said that French culture has mixed with Vietnamese culture, not destroyed Vietnamese culture, so since the French period, in Vietnam we began to have a number of terms such as ” Hanoi Elegant people”. The word “elegant” has not existed since ancient time, because the word “elegant” only originates from the French word ELLEGANT, only starting when the French language and French culture were introduced to Vietnam.

The French designed and built Hanoi, and built urban areas in Vietnam, such as Saigon, Da Lat, Da Nang, Hue, according to modern, civilized French architectural style, straight streets, the villa has beautiful French architecture, and still retains the architecture of ancient Vietnamese such as temples, pagodas, and houses.

Now French architectural villas and buildings in Vietnamese urban areas such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Saigon, have become invaluable architectural and cultural assets for Vietnam.

For example, Hanoi Opera House and Saigon Small Theater are invaluable cultural assets for thousands of generations to come in Vietnam.

French-style villa buildings such as the Hanoi University of Pharmacy building, Hanoi General University on Le Thanh Tong street, near Hoan Kiem Lake, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building near Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi,,, is the pride of French architecture in Hanoi.

Hanoi was elegant during the French period, not as crowded, noisy, and chaotic as it is today.

Cars on the streets are very sparse and only exist in a few streets such as Dien Bien Phu, Trang Thi, Trang Tien, and Tran Hung Dao now. Passenger cars are usually Renault, Citroen, Peugeot brands, with an old-fashioned and monotonous shape: the car is low, the rear is completely swept down, and two lights are on the fenders at the front.

If we go back in time to the years 1930-1935, in Hanoi, the luxury cars of the “mandarins” were just the same cars as what we now call commandcar (military command cars). When the weather is cool, the officials lower the roof for fresh air. That’s why later there were tourist-style cars, people called them “trunk cars” because they were closed, to distinguish them from canvas-top cars.

The workers dress poorly and the students are the cleanest dressed, most of them walk.

Most women, both rich and poor, wear clogs.

Men (both young men, workers, and students) also wear clogs more than shoes and sandals.

Looking at Vietnamese society during the French period in the early 20th century, with girls wearing ao dai, men also wore ao dai and turbans, on Tet, ordinary people wore ao dai, or Mai Tho shirt, while men wears Le Luu clothes, we do not see French culture encroaching, destroying or replacing Vietnamese culture, but we still see Vietnamese culture still maintained and developed, more luxurious and more beautiful.

The Vietnamese mandarins use Nghe hats, which are both light and beautiful. People with titles, that is, mandarins, wear blue or brocade shirts and purple pants on Tet, and their wives are different from commoners in their red pants and cashew shoes (ie coconut shoes, colored velvet toes, embroidered with beads).

On weekdays, wealthy people wear dark scarves, La Ca shirts, plain or floral shirts, bamboo pants, and Gia Dinh shoes. As for the men, their hair is covered with a scarf made of lace, fringe or velvet, with a ponytail across the hair.

Women wear silk ao dai, bandage shirt, bamboo pants, Tay Lang pants woven by Buoi village, black curved sandals, three Tam hats, then leather or velvet toe shoes…

At the wedding, the groom wears a brocade shirt, the groomsmen wear black or satin shirts, and they all wear white silk pants.

The groom and bride both wear coconut shoes, the groom has green shoes, the bride has white shoes…

Later, men as well as women, very few people used hats but often used umbrellas, boys used black green umbrellas, girls used smaller umbrellas of all colors.

The ladies ditched their heavy curved sandals to put on shoes. Older women wear leather shoes, while young women wear velvet toe shoes, embroidered with beads, or brocade, bought or purchased at Duc Mau – Hang Bo store.

In the 1920s, men wore western clothes, wide-leg pants, tight-fitting 2-button jackets, and large braided ties. The women wear short ao dai, their arms hang loosely at their shoulders, and their hair is so long that it reaches their heels and is styled into buns.

From 1930 onwards, wearing western clothes became more and more popular every day and there were many new fashions.

In the cold season, if you wear a suit, it is called ive wear (hiver means winter). Suits include pants, waistcoats, vests, in addition to ties, and felt hats (feutre, a type of felt).

Favorite fabric for suits (made of tissus) is Dormeuil and a few others like Montagnard… Young people like bottle blue (for that color is young); Elderly people use brown, gray colors…

Trousers at that time were in vogue with levé hems (levé, folded hems).

In the summer – because it’s a tropical country – young people often wear white pants, rarely colored pants and no one uses khaki pants. The shirt is usually a chemisette, short, narrow body, short sleeves, made of fabric or knitted. Knitwear is often Western goods, the famous one being the French brand Valisère; profile Valisère eyelashes come in several colors, but the most popular is charcoal purple.

At that time, there was no way to wear a shirt over pants, even for workers, because to wear Western clothes, they had to wear pants and blue tuya (ceinture – waistband) to tuck the shirt inside.

Hats are no longer used at the beginning of summer, bare heads have begun to come into fashion. The casque is often used by people who wear Vietnamese or Western clothes, but by contractors, crew chiefs, and middle-aged people.

In the cold season, people use leather shoes. The popular color is brown, few people use black shoes. Fall or summer, use deux couleurs, two colors. In the hot season, it is common for young people to wear canvas shoes.

There are many shoe brands, but the favorite is Czechoslovak shoes – Ba Ta shoes sold on Hang Dao street.

In 1935, a painter who graduated from the Indochina College of Fine Arts, Nguyen Cat Tuong, owner of the largest modern women’s fashion store at 16 Le Loi Street – Hanoi, had the initiative to introduce a style of ao dai. Ceintré has a beveled waist, small, rounded hem, and a tight-fitting shirt that accentuates the attractive curves of a woman’s body, making her body seem taller and slimmer.

The pants are made of silk or white satin, slightly tight on the buttocks and thighs and widen from the knees down, making the legs seem longer on high-heeled sandals. This type of shirt is called Lemuya style (Lemur means wall).

Vietnamese people have proactively improved clothing designs, mixing tight French skirts with traditional Vietnamese ao dai, to create new ao dai pieces that are tighter to the body, highlighting the beautiful features of a woman’s body.

Recently, a Vietnamese flight attendant told me that when she went to Thailand, wearing that tight ao dai, the Thai flight attendant did not dare to wear it, for fear of looking too suggestive, too sexy, affecting airline passengers.

Young girls in the French period often wore clogs, and clogs were often low-heeled. Few people wear high heels and no one wears sandals (of course, no one produces women’s sandals).

On formal occasions, wear beaded shoes (mock muzzle style). If it’s a wedding, then go for a comedy. These two styles of women’s shoes are often produced and sold by the “Quan Chua” brand on Hang Dao street. Women walking on the street often walk empty-handed. The “sac à main” is also rarely used by many people.

Regarding teeth and hair, in 1939 there were still girls over 20 years old with black teeth. However, when necessary, people still wear blush, lipstick and “modern” clothes (the word “modern” has been no longer used since 1940).

Then gradually the black teeth turned white. Perhaps that is also one of the “backgrounds” for the appearance of the “Amy Beauty Salon” on Hang Than Street with the advertisement: “Shave black teeth – Curl hair – Draw eyebrows”.

Therefore, this “Amy Beauty Salon” can go down in “history” because it is one of the first few women’s hair salons to appear in Hanoi.

Until 1945, when the August Revolution succeeded, Vietnamese culture also changed very quickly. The style of dressing in the style of the former Soviet Union and the style of the former Socialist countries of Eastern Europe was quickly imported into Vietnam, gradually replacing traditional Vietnamese clothing, dress, and architectural styles.

During the Subsidy period of Vietnam war time against America, the architecture of prefabricated building large panel houses in the style of the old Soviet Union began to replace French architecture. The dormitories and apartment buildings built in the old Soviet Union style in Hanoi such as Van Chuong, Giang Vo, Thanh Cong, etc. still exist now, miserably degraded, and it is difficult to change.

On the contrary, French architectural buildings and French villas, if fortunately still preserved and not demolished, are still beautiful, still luxurious, still the epitome of both modern and traditional architecture, still exists hundreds of years later.

Vietnamese Party and State leaders currently mainly live in French architectural villas, but not much of the leaders live in prefabricated buildings in the old Soviet style.

The streets of Hanoi, Saigon, Da Nang, and Da Lat built according to French architecture were never flooded, but now they flood every year, causing havoc to people’s lives.

Clothing styles of the French period such as ao dai, tunic, dark pants, etc. are rarely seen now, we only see hybrid culture, short clothes and skirts, exposed buttocks, exposed navels, exposed bottoms, thigh exposed, backless, chest exposed.

Vietnamese girls today take turns competing to show off their skinny bodies, skeleton body, bowed legs, and flat breasts, yet they still wear short clothes to show off those “before and after are the same as 1” things.

The Communist Party of Vietnam’s economic-cultural-social development policy once said “Preserving national cultural identity” is very correct, now it is necessary to turn that slogan into practical action.

Economic development, but must preserve Vietnam’s national cultural identity.///