(Ho Chi Minh City) All it took was a poster of singer Rihanna wearing one of her oversized white shirts in a campaign for a luxury brand in 2017 to launch Cong Tri’s international career.
At 43, the Vietnamese fashion designer has since enjoyed incredible success with his clothing lines inspired by popular outfits from his country declined in evening dresses in silk, organza or spun taffeta.
It now employs 150 people and has three stores in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital of Vietnam.
Its collections are inspired by the uniforms of exclusively female militias from the Vietnam War, urban flower sellers and peasant women working in the rice fields.
Sworn in a reality show, Cong Tri has been famous in Vietnam for a long time, but when Rihanna fell for her Em Hoa collection, “the flower girl”, stars like Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell and Gwen Stefani began to choose too his creations during red carpets.
Katy Perry donned several of her outfits on her 2017 world tour.
Strength and resilience
After studying industrial art, this native of Danang in the center of the country in a family of eight children began his career illustrating album covers.
Fascinated by the stories of female soldiers told at school and touched by their “strength and resilience”, he launched into fashion with a first collection, Green leaves using the technique of patchwork to pay homage to these women with outfits reminiscent of their winter trellis and their green caps.
“At home, they took care of their families, and worked in the rice fields,” he says of the soldiers.
“And on the battlefield, they became real warriors: they were such strong women.”
“In all my collections… the characteristics that make Vietnamese women strong are always conveyed or hidden in my design, even in the choice of fabric,” added Tri, behind thick black-rimmed glasses.
In 2016 in Tokyo, Cong Tri presented a collection in “Lanh My A”, a very resistant silk only made in a village in the Mekong River delta and which requires very particular know-how.
Once woven, the silk is dyed up to 100 times with a liquid made from mac nua, an ebony-colored fruit that gives it a leather-like appearance.
It took 2 years for the designer to put together enough fabric for his collection.
Changing the image of Vietnam
Spotted by Rihanna’s stylist, her creations inspired by Ao Ba Ba, the traditional outfits of Vietnamese rice farmers, earned her a participation in New York Fashion Week in 2019, a first for a Vietnamese designer.
Cong Tri’s success abroad could change the image of a country known in the textile industry for its factories supplying little hands for the clothing giants, but not yet for its own designers.
Tran Hung, a young fashion designer also based in Ho Chi Minh City, showcased her designs at two recent London Fashion Weeks, while Tran Phuong My debuted at New York Fashion Week in 2019.
“Making a name for yourself in the global fashion industry is the result of a long, hard work process,” says Cong Tri, who says he spends 18 hours a day in the office.
However, he has spent many years ‘trying and wishing’ to catch the attention of global stars in an industry where half of employees of color believe that a career in fashion is not equally accessible to all, according to a recent report from the Association of American Fashion Designers (CFDA).
The pandemic may have given the fashion industry a chance to change, some believe, thanks to virtual catwalks that make it easier for designers around the world to come forward.
Cong Tri believes, however, that Asian designers must continue to fight to get to the top.
“We always have to think about which way, which path to take step by step. We must not just wait for society to give us our chance, ”he explains.