Young people "catch the trend" of taking photos in Ao Dai to celebrate Tet

Memories of the old Tet

This year, Hai Duong Provincial Museum is exhibiting the theme "Vietnamese Tet Fragrance" with nostalgic spaces of the past. Every day, children and adults come here to take Tet photos, crowded and bustling. The most crowded Tet photos are taken by young people, with trendy costumes and elaborate accessories.

The most popular check-in spot is probably the ethnographic space with ancient houses of the middle and upper classes. Colorful incense sticks and pots of yellow chrysanthemums are arranged in front of the house, giving the place a nostalgic Tet atmosphere.

Ms. Mai Thi Hong (Hai Duong City), a student studying in Hanoi, also took advantage of her day off to go to the provincial museum to take photos. A few months ago, she had made an ao dai, bought accessories, and waited for the weather to be sunny and "dressed up" to take photos.

Following the fashion trend this year, she chose an ao dai design with a prominent "peacock blanket" pattern. She also paid attention to small accessory details such as black glasses, red lucky money envelopes, and wooden clogs to create the most perfect photo.

“I had planned to take photos of the Tet ao dai for a long time, planning to take them at Dong Xuan market (Hanoi). However, when I returned to my hometown and learned that the Provincial Museum was beautifully decorated this year, I invited my mother and sister to come here to take photos with me,” said Ms. Hong.

After decorating the space with the Tet theme, the number of visitors to the Provincial Museum increased more than every year. Visitors were not only from Hai Duong City but also from other districts, towns and cities.

The exhibition space "Remembering the subsidy period" located in the Provincial Museum is also a nostalgic place chosen by young people to take photos. Complexes such as trading stores, places to buy and deliver food, living room spaces, traditional tea shops, hair salons, bicycle repair shops, etc. are collected, selected and recreated by the Provincial Museum. Wearing the ancient brocade ao dai, wooden clogs, immersing themselves in the subsidy period, young people seem to be returning to the nostalgic time of their "grandparents".

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With the trend of taking photos in traditional ao dai, photographers often take young people to places with ancient architecture such as communal houses, pagodas, ancient houses, old apartment buildings, rural markets, etc. to take photos.

Since the New Year, almost every day in Con Son Pagoda, there are visitors wearing Ao Dai coming to burn incense, worship and take photos. The brown wooden doors bring a nostalgic look of time, the deep and long corridors or simply standing in the middle of the pagoda yard also create beautiful photos.

Mr. Nguyen Van Quang, a photographer in Chi Linh City, said that for more than half a month now, every week he has taken customers to Con Son Pagoda to take photos, mainly in groups. Many groups have to make reservations 2 weeks in advance so that Mr. Quang can arrange a photo shoot.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Quang Tung, a photographer in Ninh Giang district, often takes customers to coffee shops or rural market corners to take photos of ao dai. "Taking photos of Tet ao dai has been around for many years, but this year young people tend to take photos in the traditional style of the 80s and 90s, with accessories such as scarves and glasses. Many coffee shops also decorate the space for Tet to attract customers," said Tung.

According to some photographers in Hai Duong, the average cost of taking photos in Ao Dai is about 500,000 VND/person and from 1-2 million VND/group.

Not only photography services, but also ao dai rental shops are also busy during this Tet holiday. From 7am to 11pm, the ao dai rental shop of Ms. Ngoc Ha Luong (Hai Duong City) is always bustling with customers. Since the New Year, her shop has always been crowded, regardless of whether it is midweek or weekend.

Understanding the trend of taking photos of Tet ao dai, this year Ms. Luong has prepared 2,000 new ao dai with trendy designs such as plain brocade ao dai, peacock blanket patterned ao dai, four-panel embroidered ao dai... "There are days when the shop has no plain brocade ao dai to rent," Ms. Luong informed.

With reasonable prices, only from 150,000-200,000 VND/set of Ao Dai, including accessories (pearl beads, bracelets, wooden clogs, wooden fans...), the number of customers coming to her shop to rent is very large, from students to office ladies. Although it is more than half a month until Tet, there are already customers who have booked Ao Dai for the 2nd and 3rd days of Tet. "The trend of taking photos in Tet Ao Dai has been around for a few years, but this year the trend of taking photos in Ao Dai has really exploded. I can't count the number of customers," Ms. Luong commented.

Not only are there many customers before Tet, those who provide photography and costume rental services predict that the trend of taking photos in Ao Dai will last until February and March when people go on spring outings and visit pagodas at the beginning of the year. Although it is hard work, Tet is the time when these service industries "make a lot of money".