---
node: fashion_french_indochina
type: fashion
slug: french_indochina_fashion
title: "Fashion in French Indochina"
lead: "In French Indochina the áo dài was modernised under Western influence; in the 1930s the painter Nguyễn Cát Tường (\"Le Mur\") created a fitted, refined modern áo dài."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: french_indochina_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LE_TONG-DOC_(Une_campagne_au_Tonkin).jpg"
image_author: "Henri Thiriat, after Hocquard — a Vietnamese provincial governor (1892)"
image_license: "Public domain"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (vietnam region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

Amid French colonial rule and modernisation, Western dress spread in the cities and traditional dress changed.

## Key garments and style

In the 1930s the Hanoi painter Nguyễn Cát Tường (French name Le Mur) reworked the five-panel tunic into a fitted, single-piece modern áo dài, which became a fashionable new dress among urban women. Men also took up Western clothing and caps.

## Transition

After 1945, amid independence and partition, the áo dài became a national symbol.