Vietnamese traditional costumes - My favourite one?

This is also a post to welcome the Vietnamese Women Day. Thank you my dear @trangbaby to invite me to write the post on this occasion.

The 20th October - Vietnamese Woman Day is pretty much like Mothers' Day for me. Like every other girl, I love my Mum. She made me laugh and she also made me cries. She is the inspiration for me to think harder about the world, about everything around me. Thanks to my Mum, I learn that people are not perfect and we are on our own journey to learn and grow.

I am usually good at expressing my feelings on postcards or letters to my Mum. However, it is not easy for me to be affectionate with her in person. That's why I decided, for this Vietnamese Mother Day, I will call my Mum and wishing her the best. I will tell her how much I love her and how happy I am with my life so she doesn't have to worry too much about her little girl.

So what I am going to tell you in this post? Recently, Vietnamese women wear Ao Dai - a Vietnamese traditional costume - on the 20th of Oct as a way to celebrate it. Coincidentally, Oct is also the time that Vietnamese students in the last year of their university would wear Ao Dai to take photos together. So let me take you back in time to Oct 2011, when my classmates and I went for our Ao Dai style photoshoot.

Áo Dài is our traditional costume but I didn't have a chance to wear it until the last year of my uni. I often saw students on the Television wearing Áo Dài but it was not the case with my high school. For some reason, the high schools in our hometown have different uniforms. Whenever seeing students on the TV wearing Áo Dài in their school, I always wish we could do the same in our schools.

That said, I was so excited about the Áo Dài photoshoot with my Uni classmate. I even visited the Áo Dài rental shop a month earlier just to choose a good one for myself. Just so you know, it is not easy to be perfectly fit in the set of Áo Dài in the rental place. So the sooner I book one, the better chance I have to get a good fit. If it is made by a tailor, it would be easier and nicer. But to wear it for just one day, I decided to hire it from the rental place.

The photoshoot was taken in two special locations. It started with landscape photos in our university in the morning. Then in the afternoon, we moved to a famous location named The Temple of Literature which was the first university in Vietnam. If you ever have a chance to visit Hà Nội, you will probably be introduced to this place as it is so famous to both Vietnamese and foreigners.

It was a fine day, not too hot and not too cold. A perfect day for us to wear the Aó Dài. All my girlfriends were well-dressed with fine make-up that we wouln't normally see each other with. At first, we were a bit shy and unfamiliar. But after a while, we were back to our ownself and had fun with each other.

Oh, by the way, I am from North Vietnam so we do have another traditional costume. It is called Áo Tứ Thân which was worn by women in the past. The photos below were taken during a Mid-Autumn event from the company I worked for back in 2016.

For me, Áo Tứ Thân is more comfortable to wear. I don't need to worry too much about my body figures and I don't have to wear high heels to look good on those. However, I still prefer to put on the Áo Dài for special occasions as it is designed to show the beauty of women. I feel good and proud to be a woman when I wear it.

I just happen to know that today is a Mothers' Day in some countries as well. So I want to say "Happy Mother Day" to all the wonderful Mums. Have a great day with full of joy and happiness.