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Moreover, this place also houses hundreds of precious ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dresses), displayed elegantly and splendidly in ancient buildings. Its owner spent decades building the museum into its current state of grandeur.
The museum currently displays more than 60 unique and famous ao dai (Vietnamese traditional dress).These stories relate to everyday ao dai dresses throughout different periods, showcasing the history of the ao dai, such as: the four-panel ao dai of the 17th century, the five-panel ao dai of the 18th century, the ao dai of the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th century…
Besides the ao dai worn by the king and the Nguyen royal family, the remaining ao dai are associated with famous Vietnamese women who made their mark in politics, economics, and culture. In addition to the ao dai collection, the museum also displays many images of ao dai from the past and present, along with valuable documents about the traditional Vietnamese ao dai.
It is a security guard.As the first museum dedicated to Vietnamese traditional clothing, few people know that to create the dignified museum dedicated to the ao dai (Vietnamese traditional dress) that exists today, artist and designer Si Hoang spent over 12 years persistently pursuing his idea and bringing it to life. His connection with the ao dai was also quite coincidental. “It was 1989, I was a trainee lecturer in fine arts at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts and was invited to design the first ao dai for the Miss Ao Dai contest organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Women's Newspaper,” Si Hoang said. He has visited many famous museums around the world, but perhaps the experience of attending the exhibition on 1,500 years of Chinese clothing history at the Tokyo Museum was the most poignant for him.
In the section on modern and contemporary costumes, they displayed a prototype of the Vietnamese ao dai (traditional dress) complete with a conical hat and wooden clogs! "If we don't soon create an ao dai museum to confirm this...""It would be incredibly painful if someone else took away the Vietnamese national costume. Losing our culture takes hundreds, even thousands of years to recover," Si Hoang shared. This further fueled his determination to complete this museum.
Ms. Le Tu Cam, President of the Ho Chi Minh City Cultural Heritage Association, commented that the establishment of the first Ao Dai museum in Vietnam is a shared joy for the cultural sector. This is also an opportunity for each Vietnamese person to gain a more accurate and profound understanding of the quintessential value of the traditional Ao Dai. Professor Nguyen Khac THuan also shared the same joy: “I am truly delighted that after so much anticipation, the Ao Dai Museum – a place preserving the soul of our national culture – has officially been established. I also want to contribute a little to this project with Si Hoang, so I am always ready to support and advise so that our Ao Dai museum can become even more perfect.”
Visitors can reach the museum by private or public transport, taking bus route 88 from Ben Thanh Market. The museum is open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily. Admission costs 100,000 VND, 30,000 VND for students, and is free for children under 6 and over 70 years old.
