Ao dai rental and photo shoot services are popular during Tet

On the first day of Tet, a family of 10 members came to Mr. Hung's store to take pictures.

The May Bom apartment complex in Nguyen Trai ward (Hai Duong city) has an old architecture with mossy walls. When taking pictures with the old-fashioned ao dai, it looks like the style of women in the 90s of the last century. Ms. Le Yen in Hai Duong city rented a pink ao dai and invited her friend to this apartment complex to take pictures. Ms. Yen said: "I think taking pictures during Tet in the style of going to peach gardens is too popular. This year, on social networks, there is a trend of taking nostalgic photos like that, so I rented an ao dai to take pictures here. My friend is a photographer, so I just bought flowers and rented an ao dai."

Ms. Le Yen bought a bunch of white flowers and rented a pink traditional dress to take pictures.

This year, during Tet, the shops that rent Ao Dai and take photos are also more crowded than usual. The Ao Dai shop of Ms. Luong Ngoc Ha on Nguyen Thi Due Street (Hai Duong City) is 3 times more crowded than usual. This year, young people tend to take photos with old Ao Dai, Ao Dai of Co Ba Saigon. By the 28th of Tet, out of 50 old Ao Dai, only about 5 remained and 30 Ao Dai of Co Ba Saigon were rented out.

Some young people take photos next to the time-stained walls at the Pump Housing Complex (Hai Duong City)

Reasonable prices, diverse designs, many customers come to rent Ao Dai at Ms. Ha's house, mainly young people. The rental price for each Ao Dai is from 120,000-150,000 VND/set, with accessories such as fans, clogs, and turbans from 30,000-50,000 VND/set. Customers must pay in advance and leave their ID as a deposit.

Ms. Ha said: “Whenever there is a trend on social media, I have to import that ao dai model and rent it out very well. The old-style ao dai model has been around for about 2-3 years, but this year the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided, many activities have been organized again, so there are more customers renting it.”

This is the trend of taking Tet photos of young people this year.

Thanks to this, photographers are busier and have more customers during this time. Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, the owner of a photo shop in Hai Duong City, has twice as many customers as usual. Mr. Hung provides a full package of services including renting ao dai, makeup, and photography for about 1 million VND/person. With the traditional ao dai photography style, he often takes young people to places such as communal houses, pagodas, museums, ancient houses, etc. to take photos.

Tet is also an occasion for family reunions, family reunions, and wishing grandparents and parents a long life, so many families take photos to preserve spring memories. Right from the morning of the first day of Tet, a family of 10 members came to Hung's shop to take photos. "The shop mainly takes wedding photos. However, during Tet, many people take family photos, so I also take them. Therefore, Tet is busier, combining going to wish Tet and taking time to schedule photos for customers," Hung said.

Ms. Luong Ngoc Ha's ao dai shop has many customers renting old-style ao dai.

With more than 10 years of experience renting ao dai, during Tet, Ms. Ha often advises customers on suitable colors and styles of ao dai such as red ao dai, yellow ao dai, and modernized ao dai. Ms. Ha's shop has all kinds of ao dai for children to the elderly, each family usually rents ao dai for all members, some families have at least 4-5 people, some families have up to dozens of people. Therefore, from the 30th of Tet to the 6th of Tet this year, every day Ms. Ha has about 3-4 families ordering to rent ao dai like that.

Many families take their children to ancient places such as communal houses and pagodas to take photos on Tet holiday.

Instead of spending millions to have a new ao dai made, many people choose to rent one to save money and diversify designs. Ao dai rental and photography services are also making a lot of money during Tet.

LINH LINH