Sent overseas to study at the wonderland of romance, France, when she was only at the age of 12, the girl with her birth name of Marie-Therese Nguyen Huu Thi Lan applied to the famous girl school Couvent des Oiseaux, Paris. During the times of patriarchal dominance, she was a phenomenon as landowners back then in Vietnam were nourishing their assets rather than being bothered by their daughters’ education.
Nam Phuong Empress wasn't only excruciating on her appearance and elegance, she was a woman with pride, confidence, extraordinary taste of fashion and expressed her feminism without fear.
With an outstanding height of over 175cm, she doesn’t lose her powerful appearance even when she marches in her low-heels along with her husband, Emperor Bao Dai, who was 182cm tall. Fragile and slim body shape, elegant face features, the glance filled with pride of a young madam… and most exquisitely should be her perpetual hairstyle of sculpted waves with soft curls, instead of the common thick curls often worn by urban girls back in the time.
She adored long length dresses and was usually seen in midi dress with the length of 5cm above the ankles, with the appropriate and righteous fit and droopiness, making the dress appear to be her second layer of skin on her slim body. Her fashion sense was absolutely feminine and well-nurturing of her curves yet does not show any of her private skin and preserved her Vietnamese culture.
With her taste of elegance in fashion, to couple with lengthy formal dresses, the Empress would choose slim-strapped sandals with rectangular heels - fragile and elegant, instead of the fierceful and sharp look of the common high heels. If she was to wear casual dresses to stroll in the day, she would pair with her Oxfords or Ballerinas - which were the timeless symbols for Western fashion icons, as well as the inevitable items of the scholars back in the time.
The women back then weren’t yet the Nam Phuong Empress, but instead a teenage student Little Mariette - naive and carefree - luckily captured through the lens of a French photographer. The ancient white formal gown revealing the naked arms must have been a phenomenon of fashion to the women during Vietnamese patriarchal time, showing how fearless and free was the mindset of an Empress.
Despite her background of being a daughter of a wealthy family, her love with Bao Dai Emperor was not supported from the beginning. Her family wasn’t participating politically, with the young girl refusing to give up her religion of Catholic, Marie-Therese Thi Lan still wasn’t a suitable ‘candidate’ to be the wife of the Emperor.
To calm the people’s hearts, the Emperor stated: “The future Queen, reared like us in France, combines in her person the graces of the West and the charms of the East. We who have had the occasion to meet her believe that she is worthy to be our companion and our equal. We are certain by her conduct and example that she fully merits the title of First Woman of the Empire.”. On the other hand, the Emperor also threatened to stay single if he weren’t allowed to marry Mariette in order to achieve blessing from Tu Cung Empress Dowager.
For the formal royal wear, the Empress of Southern Vietnam was given the favor of wearing golden fabric - the colour of the Emperor, and being the only woman permitted to wear khăn vành dây - a Vietnamese cultural headwear. For casual wear, to obey the custom of the royal Vietnamese, Nam Phuong found herself with the simple tufted hairstyle with buns, the cultural Ao Dai, and her appearance of a traditional Vietnamese woman.
French and global press once described Nam Phuong Empress as one of the fashion icons of the time, and praised her taste in high fashion. The press deemed the Empress’ use of fabric in her traditional Ao Dai to be competent with the fabric used by luxurious fashion brands at that time - Hermes and Dior.
To be continued...
Vietcharm Ao Dai House aims to nurture the traditional culture of Vietnamese women, with years of experience in the Ao Dai Couture manufacturing industry and collaborations with the most famous & authentic Ao Dai designers in Vietnam. With the incorporation of global recognised fine art and modern qualified printing/embroidering techniques, we aim to bring wearable fine art on culture wear to your very own hands!
Comments