Loud music, smoke machines and more than a few neon lights: some wonder if this is the ideal set up for a fashion show.

In Vietnam, ideal or not, this is often the set up, with far more attention paid to flashiness and loudness than to the actual designs on show.

But local fashion industry personalities – fashion show producers, magazine editors and designers themselves – say this needs to change if the Vietnamese fashion industry wants to continue to grow.

Not just desert

Le Quoc Vinh, chairman and CEO of Le Group of Companies, which produces Vietnam’s top annual fashion event – the Dep Fashion Show (DFS) – said Vietnam lacked promoters and producers who were also fashion experts.

“Most fashion show producers are unfortunately not specialized in the fashion field. They are usually either music, theater or trade event directors.”

Echoing complaints from throughout the industry, Vinh said that fashion shows were often tacked on awkwardly to other larger events, such as music concerts or other art shows, and never received due attention.

“Most of the events we call ‘fashion’ shows are actually just parts of larger performances or events.”

He said audiences and organizers alike didn’t understand how serious “real” fashion shows were supposed to be. “Many still think of fashion shows as nothing more than a small dessert after a large meal, with that meal often being some other forms of entertainment.”

Showcasing his latest collection at DFS 8 last month, Vietnamese American designer Tom K Nguyen – known for his eponymous fashion line and as California Designer of the Year in 1997 – agreed that the performances surrounding most fashion shows, which often included Vietnam’s hottest pop stars, often stole the shows’ glory.

Nguyen told Thanh Nien Weekly that he held DFS in high regard for its efforts, but also said the show was “still more an entertainment fashion show while the ones in US are a little more commercialized.”

Since most of organizers’ focus is placed on the performances outside the fashion shows, Vinh said “the catwalks’ designs, decorations and lighting effects often clash with the music and the designers’ themes.”

He said in foreign countries, much time and meticulous planning ensured all these elements blend together seamlessly.

Nguyen said that Vietnamese fashion shows also needed to invite and attract more media players who could help promote the designs and labels on show.

“The attendees of US shows are mainly professionals such as magazine editors, news reporters, photographers and buyers,” he said, noting that he didn’t feel that ratio was high enough at the DFS show.

Critics also say that the Vietnamese fashion industry is too infatuated with star models and thereby neglected designers and their designs.

Vinh said that Vietnamese fashion companies had failed to effectively promote their brands at these shows as most organizers had chosen to feature and promote the shows’ models, not the clothes they wore.

Late bloomer, globalization

Nguyen Thu Huong, CEO of Nam Huong Communications and Investment Corp., which publishes five leading fashion magazines, including Beauty & Fashion, and Phong Cach Doanh Nhan (Business Style), said she had witnessed “amazing” growth in the local fashion industry over the past decade.

She said suppliers were now plentiful and prices reasonable.

“But we’re still improving at much slower speed compared to global fashion developments.”

Huong said that Vietnam’s integration into the global economy had actually posed new hurdles to the development of a local, original and unique fashion industry.

“Globalization means our fashion follows the international trend. Vietnamese, for instance, will not buy flared trousers if famous stylish foreigners are wearing straight, tight ones.”

The goal, she said, should be for Vietnamese designers to apply international trends to designs that incorporate Vietnamese materials, culture and design.

Editorials from other fashion magazines have pointed out that local fashion is greatly influenced by the Chinese and Korean TV programming that plays here around the clock.

“We magazines cannot go against the desires of the readers who want to look like their film and TV idols,” said Thuy Tien, an editor at Sanh Dieu (Stylish), one of Vietnam’s most popular fashion magazines.

Of course, the TV stars wear youthful and modern looks, while Nguyen said Vietnamese fashion was lacking in this category. “The designers in Vietnam still remain in more of a handcrafting [style] rather than industrial, they are also lacking good quality textiles.”

He said this was not as much a problem in places like Thailand and Hong Kong, where the fashion industries were competitive thanks to high quality and attractive styles.

Fashion week

Vinh suggested that if international recognition was what the Vietnamese fashion industry wanted, it should do what its idols in Paris do.

“Designers and businesses should join hands to organize an annual fashion week in which all the brands in the country display their latest collections the way other countries have been doing,” suggested Vinh.

“Within the fashion week, a lot of more activities can also be held like seminars, trade shows, parties and other promotions... It would become an in-depth event for everyone in the industry as well as consumers, rather than just a small party for certain designers.

“Inviting some international or regional brands to the fashion week could also be a motivator for local fashion companies,” said Vinh.

But he said the dream could never come true without more government support for the fashion industry as all national events here need to be organized by a ministry.

Vinh and several magazine editors and designers interviewed were unanimous in their call for the government to lend more support to the fledgling industry.

Reported by Hong Luu