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Diego Cortizas, also known by his nickname Diego Chula, passed away yesterday, October 13, 2021, at the age of 49.
Diego is Spanish. He is a fashion designer who has lived in Vietnam since 2004 and founded Chula House in a prime location on the shores of West Lake (43 Nhat Chieu Street). During a trip to Vietnam in 2003, Diego fell in love with the country, and specifically Hanoi. Immediately, he made a sudden and seemingly "fateful" decision to live and build his career in this land.
Chula House primarily functions as a fashion store, sometimes serving as a cozy venue for exhibitions or other art events. The name Chula House truly means...a houseDiego handles the design, while his wife, Laura, takes care of the marketing and sales, alongside dedicated and long-term employees.
Chula House's products focus on traditional materials such as silk, velvet, satin, and raw silk, and Diego breathes life into the designs by preserving images and patterns of Vietnamese culture and daily life, while adding and transforming them with unique color blocks or cut-out details.
To create the products for Chula House, Diego drew inspiration from his love of Vietnamese indigenous culture. He "tried to see life like a child," transforming bamboo baskets and bricks into something both innovative and rustic. For Diego, he is always grateful for Vietnam's extraordinary culture, which has taught him and given him so much meaning."For us, fashion is just an excuse. Because we're not anthropologists or historians. We're simply strangers who have fallen in love with this culture and want to learn more about it every day, and then share it with each other like children."- Diego once shared.
Coincidentally, much like Diego's decision to come to Hanoi, Chula House employs many people with disabilities. He doesn't see them as disabled, but rather as exceptionally gifted individuals whose abilities compensate for their physical limitations. Most of Chula House's handcrafted products are made by their own hands. Diego created jobs for them and broke down prejudices about employment for people with disabilities; they are perfectly capable of producing high-quality products, even better than those made by able-bodied individuals.
Diego is endlessly inspired by the Vietnamese ao dai. He enthusiastically studies the traditional Vietnamese sewing techniques and its history. For Diego, the mission of a fashion designer is to ensure that this traditional garment's heritage continues to flow through time. Not stopping there, he harbors many ideas for the ao dai, such as combining Vietnamese identity with Spanish culture, and has sold many ao dai to the Spanish market.
Diego also participates in fashion shows, but not just those with flashy lights; he also shows in mountainous areas or community spaces. In 2020, Diego participated in the Brocade Fashion Show, part of the 2nd Vietnam Brocade Culture Festival held in the mountains of Dak Nong, with a runway made of uneven wooden planks and the main material used being brocade fabric.
In April 2021, Diego held a fashion show on the small street of Phuc Tan, part of a public space project for riverside workers. He had high hopes for the show to celebrate the diversity of Vietnamese culture, as well as because the location was "truly the heart of Hanoi." Most of the models in the show were local residents. The main inspiration for the collection was the Long Bien Bridge and the surrounding residential areas. In this project, Diego and local residents participated in painting a mural of the "Long Bien Dragon," dozens of meters long, with vibrant colors. Notably, Diego creatively transformed the image of a chicken coop from the Long Bien night market into unique lampshades.
Diego is not only an artist on the fashion design stage, but also a true artist on the music stage. He frequently performs at his own Chula House, or Tadioto – a bar, a “cultural hub,” and an art experimentation space that has existed in Hanoi for over 13 years. And, he also writes poetry.
Book me a ride
Book me a ride
And I will bring you
To your smiling side
And I will dance you
Drinking a Lemon Tea
And I will bring you
To an endless night
Let's cross together
the Red River
Let's have an ice cream at winter
Let's have two bun chas
on the sidewalk.
Let's dance bolero
With the raincoats.
Just Book Me a Ride
And I'll go.
The rivers of taxis,
The Misty of Claxons
The smoke from the trucks
Are getting me late?
The Red lights and motorbikes
The lies and my demons,
But I found a shortcut,
I am almost there
Book me a ride
and I will bring you
to the sunny side,
Book me a ride
and I will bring you
to the smiling side.
- Diego Chula (Hanoi 2021)
We will remember Diego for the joy he brought to Hanoi and to Vietnamese culture.
