In my opinion, the greatest difference between Western and Vietnamese dress-sense is the Vietnamese women's fondness for wearing matching tops and pants - outfits which, to us, look like pyjamas. These pyjamas come in every possible colour and with an endless variety of patterns - the bigger, brighter and bolder the better. The above woman is wearing a relatively inoffensive pyjama suit, though it's still not something I'd feel comfortable being seen out in public in! This photo also shows that the young Soc Trangian men live in jeans and shirts, though some of the shirts look like they are from the 1970s!
When the women get a bit bored with their pyjama suits, they start mixing them up. The Soc Trang women are bold with their fashion choices - they don't seem to follow any rules about clashing patterns, matching colours, or defining silhouettes. They're also not afraid to mix the old with the new, mixing modern clothes with traditional hats.
If traditional hats aren't their thing, then Soc Trangian women have plenty of choices when it comes to headwear. Big, floppy hats seem to be in vogue at the moment, as long as they are also brightly coloured and/or patterned.
Another option is the motorbike helmet which has been cleverly designed to look like a floppy hat. If you look closely at the woman on the right, you can see her helmet strap, giving away the fact that her light pink hat is actually a helmet.
The women in this photo are also demonstrating another peculiar Vietnamse trend - covering up. Women here want pale skin so, any time they are outdoors, they will cover themselves not jsut with long clothing, but also with gloves, socks, face masks and sunglasses (though the last two are also meant to protect your mouth and eyes from dust). The woman at the rear of this photo is also modelling a typical outfit for a young Vietnamese woman - skinny jeans with a hoodie.
Skinny jeans and a hoodie are the fashio staple of the young women here. It is almost a uniform. However, if you are in your teens, then you can replace the skinny jeans with a pair of short and tight (and I mean really short and tight) denim shorts.
But it's not just the women of Soc Trang who are unafraid of making bold fashion choices. The men get into it too, with their 1970s shirts and semi-tight jeans. Or they can go completely opposite, as the fashion-savvy gentleman on the right is doing, by embracing loose clothes and clashing patterns. (However, I note that old mate on the right here has cleverly matched his army camouflage pants with an army camouflage helmet - which also incorporates the American flag.) Love the shirt too!
Let's take a closer look at that fabric shall we? A blue baroque pattern on synthetic fabric with silver treads running through - very stylish, very Vietnamese!In much the same way that style-conscious Westerners wear t-shirts and other clothing adorned with indecipherable Chinese/Japanese script, the Vietnamese youth are particularly fond of any clothing which has something, anything, written in English on it. I don't know who is designing these clothes but, in many cases, there command of the English language is not the best (to put it delicately). Throughout the year I've been keeping a record of some of the silliest, nonsensical or just plain strange English phrases that I have seen adorned on Soc Trangians outfits:
"This street you good choice" This is one of the phrases where I'm not even sure what message it is trying to convey.
"Ha teddy birthday" Happy birthday teddy! Though I'm not sure why that's funny. I didn't even know teddy's had birthdays.
"Zombie nation eats your head" Those damn zombies! And there's a whole nation of them now?
"Summer season - welcome to the paradise - lets go to the beach" This one kind of makes sense, it loses points though because there is no summer season in southern Vietnam and there is no beach in Soc Trang, not one that you'd want to go to anyway.
"Dear Santa it was my crazy mother's fault" It's true! Now cough up, Santa!
"Last absolute zero best show" Riiiiiiiiiight....
"Blacktie every" Blacktie every what? Blacktie every night? Blacktie everybody? Why would you want to do that?
"Merry Christmas, Merry Duck" My absolute favourite! Seasonally appropriate too. Because you're not going to have a merry christmas unless your duck is happy.
"Happy smile" Not too bad, except it was on the back pocket of a young woman's pair of jeans - I don't want to know what was going on with her jeans that was giving her a happy smile.
"Godisgirl" It's true - despite the lack of spacing and the missing word 'a'.
"The gentle and soft woman is the most beautiful" Not true, but a very Vietnamese attitude.
"Gsus says im frankie" Another favourite - mostly because my mother's cat is named Frankie, and he probably thinks of himself as some type of Jesus (Gsus) figure.
"sniffing glue won't keep families together" A very strange message to put on a t-shirt.
"In the arithmetic of love one plus one equals everything and two minus one equals nothing" So, no pressure or anything, potential boyfriend...
"F*%k R Forever" I edited this one to make it slightly less rude. I don't think the poor girl knew what the back of her t-shirt said.
"I asked to fate wong" Huh?
"I will dry if you help me" Very domesticated, but not something I'd want to declare publicly on my clothing.
"The great fish eats the small" Very philosphical. Or biological.
