Many people buy Tet ao dai from the beginning of December to take advantage of the low prices, diverse designs and many sizes.
Ao dai is becoming a hot trend and is closer to everyday life. In the past, ao dai was only chosen by the elderly on Tet holiday, formal events such as graduation ceremonies, weddings, now ao dai is worn by many young people on the street.
On a weekend afternoon in mid-December, Quynh Hoa, 25, a cosmetics saleswoman, and a group of five friends went to a clothing store on Chua Boc Street, Hanoi, to buy ao dai. "We saw so many beautiful dresses on Facebook, so we decided to go shopping and take pictures, taking advantage of the beautiful weather these past few days. It's getting colder near Tet, and there's a lot of work, so wearing ao dai won't be as fun as it is now," Quynh Hoa said.
At the same time, Minh Phuong, a 31-year-old office worker, took advantage of her child's school days to stop by Hoi Vu Street, Hanoi, to look at dresses. She said that this year she wanted to celebrate Tet earlier, so she had been "looking around" at many designs online and in stores since the beginning of the month, shopping for clothes to wear during the Lunar New Year and Solar New Year. Minh Phuong said: "I'm not picky about designs, as long as there's a gentle color that suits my taste, I'll buy it. A few days ago, I found a discounted pink ao dai for only 189,000 VND. It was cheap, so I bought a mint green set for my son. The material is not bad, it's still beautiful to wear for taking pictures and going out."
This year, the ao dai market is "feverish" near Christmas. Ms. Hoa and Ms. Phuong are two of the people who shopped for ao dai early because the Lunar New Year 2025 starts from January 29 to February 2. During the Lunar New Year 2024, statistics from Metric - a platform specializing in measuring e-commerce data, showed that Vietnamese people spent 41.5 billion VND a month to buy nearly 245,000 ao dai on four major e-commerce platforms. This level increased by about 6% compared to the same period in 2023.
Grasping the increasing demand for Ao Dai of the people, many local brands in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have "raced", planned to design and produce Ao Dai two months ago and opened for sale since the end of November. This year, Ao Dai not only appeared in shops specializing in selling this product but also in regular clothing stores.
Ha Anh, 38, owner of a clothing store in Pham Ngoc Thach, Hanoi, said that during the Tet Giap Thin period, she earned "huge" revenue from selling ao dai, so this year she prepared early and carefully. She said: "I am not a professional ao dai wearer, I just make some extras, but last year I sold 3,000 sets a month, earning 4.5 billion VND. So this year I decided to start my business two months before Tet so that people have more choices." Ha Anh said that some designs are currently "sold out" and are being continuously produced.
On social media sites such as Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, the collections have been heavily promoted for about a week now. Most of the outfits suggest combining paper fans, taking photos in a nostalgic style. The five main trends promoted by brands include 1930s-style plain silk ao dai, sequined ao dai, ao dai with stylized prints inspired by traditional costumes, brocade ao dai with floral patterns, and ao dai with bold stylized Western costumes. Popular materials include silk and industrial brocade from Van Phuc village (Ha Dong), Nha Xa (Ha Nam), chiffon, and velvet.
In addition to diverse designs, the product price range is also rich, suitable for many subjects such as students, college students, and working people. With local brands, each high-end shirt, depending on the material and tailoring technique, costs an average of 2-5 million VND per set. Regular-priced shirts that can be worn daily or for photo shoots are cheaper, about 300,000-800,000 VND per set. According to Ms. Ha Anh, this line is easier to sell. At famous fashion houses, the price is usually from 8 million VND or more per shirt, not including pants.
In addition to the reason that Tet comes early, many shoppers decide to shop at this time because there are more models to choose from, cheaper prices and more sizes. Uyen Nhi, 40, an online store owner based in Ho Chi Minh City, said that as Tet approaches, stores will launch key collections with more beautiful designs, accompanied by higher prices. "If you don't shop early, customers may miss out on models they like or that fit well at a reasonable price. Close to the holiday, stores often do not accept additional production because workers leave early," she said.
With 20 years of research and teaching fashion, designer Vu Viet Ha believes that the saturation of domestic applied fashion is also the reason why the ao dai market exploded early. The emergence of a series of local brands, physical and online clothing stores in the context of economic recession led to oversupply and lack of demand, forcing stores to switch to selling Tet items early to improve revenue.
HQ (according to VnExpress)