---
node: fashion_vietnam
type: fashion
slug: vietnam_fashion
title: "Fashion history of Vietnam"
lead: "Vietnamese dress grew from indigenous Southeast Asian clothing overlaid by Chinese influence during a millennium of Chinese rule. From cross-collar robes and the five-panel gown came the country's distinctive dress — the áo dài, a long tunic worn over trousers, and the conical hat (nón lá) — and the modern áo dài became a national symbol."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: vietnam_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LE_ROI_EN_COSTUME_DE_C%C3%89R%C3%89MONIE_(Une_campagne_au_Tonkin).jpg"
image_author: "Charles-Édouard Hocquard — a Nguyễn king in ceremonial dress (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

Two streams — indigenous tropical dress and the Chinese clothing that entered during the domination period — formed the frame of Vietnamese dress. The court wore Chinese-style ceremonial robes while the people kept practical native clothing.

## The story of dress

Under the Nguyen dynasty the five-panel gown worn over trousers became standard, the ancestor of the áo dài. Refined in the French colonial period, the modern áo dài is carried on as a national dress.