Mini Ao Dai Collection “Can Tho Heritage”
Ms. Lam Thi Xuan Lieu (41 years old, Binh Thuy district, Can Tho city) owns a collection of more than 50 mini ao dai, with a variety of impressive designs and colors.
According to her, before, Ms. Lieu had never known about sewing, especially sewing ao dai, but since admiring the square-pleated ao dai, she was completely conquered.
After a short course on sewing square-pleated ao dai instructed by designer Do Trinh Hoai Nam in July 2023, her love for ao dai grew. Ms. Lieu decided to start a business and achieved remarkable success with this type of ao dai.
Not only stopping at sewing traditional ao dai in regular sizes, Ms. Lieu also created mini ao dai. Up to now, her collection has reached more than 50 pieces. Most notable is the mini ao dai collection “Can Tho Heritage”, delicately recreating the typical symbols of the city such as: Binh Thuy ancient house, Cai Rang floating market, pedestrian bridge...
These mini ao dai are significantly smaller in size than regular ao dai. The process to create them is similar to that of the large-sized ao dai, including the stages of design, drawing, cutting, sewing, sewing the skirt, collar, attaching patterns, etc. This requires the skill, meticulousness and dedication of the artisan.
Ms. Lieu said that through this mini ao dai collection, she hopes to introduce images of Vietnam's famous landscapes to international friends. She also cherishes the idea of turning mini ao dai into unique paintings or souvenirs, bearing the mark of Vietnamese culture.
Mini Ao Dai Workshop
For Ms. Lieu, sewing mini ao dai is not only a job but also a journey to preserve and spread cultural values. Ms. Lieu wants to bring mini ao dai to everyone in the most intuitive way by organizing experiential workshops (exchange and discussion sessions).
Currently, Ms. Lieu organizes mini Ao Dai workshops every weekend, at her home or in combination with some tourist attractions in the city.
Especially during Tet, the number of visitors coming to experience is very large. Here, customers will be provided with fabric, accessories and tools to make a mini ao dai according to their preferences, under the enthusiastic guidance of Ms. Lieu.
Many young people expressed their interest and impression with the experience of making mini ao dai for Tet, thereby helping them understand the process of making traditional ao dai, and at the same time love and cherish the beauty of national culture.
In the future, Ms. Lieu plans to expand this workshop model to schools, to spread the love of ao dai to students. She also hopes that the mini ao dai will become a unique and meaningful tourist gift of Can Tho.
