3.5.12

Vietnam Haul

Here are some pictures of the aforementioned fabric market, which is inside Tan Dinh market, and tailor in Vietnam. I was pretty happy with my experience at Chi Chi Tailor, which is at 138 Ð Pasteur (down the alleyway behind the shops) in Ho Chi Minh City. The staff were really lovely and had excellent English, and I had no trouble getting across what I wanted.


Inside the fabric market. I could've spent days there, and insisted on dragging my mum back many times for more haberdashery stuff and amazing fabric. It went on and on for rows and rows. Looking back at these pictures I realise there is so much I probably missed and I wish I'd spent more time there, although I still managed to find some excellent fabrics to bring home for my stash AND I am going back in July anyway. My favourite purchase was some strawberry-print denim that I think I paid $2/metre for, that I plan on making into some truly tacky high-waisted shorts when summer comes back to Wellington (ha ha).



The tailor had a pretty good selection of fabrics available too, but nothing that really lit my fire. I got these four dresses made, the right-hand one based on a picture from the Horrockses book Jack got me for my birthday (this one looks significantly better on a human body) and the other three based on my favourite simple 1950s dress with slight variations in the skirts. The pink lily-of-the-valley fabric was from my friend Ella, and the teardrop, stripe and velvet fabrics were from the market. I think it worked out to about $30-35 per dress including fabric, and they're mostly lined and all decent quality.


These are the ones I got from the second hand stalls at another market, that are known as 'ao sida'. They're imported clothes that people have donated from other parts of Asia and Australia and the stalls were pretty gross, but I got 3 awesome 80s dresses. When I saw the pink-y rose corset one my initial reaction was that it was hideous, but then I went back and found I'd fallen in love with it for some reason. It's grown on me a lot since then! Also the black rose-print one still needs to be taken up, as it's nearly ankle length on me which is not overly flattering but it has a nice 50s-esque shape in general. There is another one, a plaid woolen drop-waisted pinafore, but it was having a soak when these photos were taken, sorry! They were $2-3 each, which I'm extremely happy with.



Here's my whole haul (also see some of our tapestries up above the window, awesome right). The anomalous one is from River Island, but the label is Chelsea Girl which is apparently what they were called in the 60s. This one comes from a range that are remakes of their original designs, so it's kiiiinda... vintage... in a way? I don't usually like new-new clothing- as opposed to new-to-me clothing- but it was a gift from my dad and it's really beautiful. I think that sums up all the crap I acquired over there, so here's a little tiny haul from yesterday when Jack and I ducked into a few opshops on our rug hunt (WHERE DO YOU FIND A DECENT RUG?? SERIOUSLY). We desperately needed a bin so I was pretty chuffed to find this cute 1970s floral rubbish tin. Also: vintage unused tea towel and black leather mary-janes. Not bad for $10. Just wanna take a moment to say how cool it is to have a significant other who really enjoys thrifting, who I don't have to drag into every opshop. It also means our room is super cool cause it's full of kitschy stuff from before we were born. OK, DONE.

14 comments:

  1. Way to make me super jealous. That market looks even more amazing than it sounded in your last post. I love the pink dress. The one your dad got you is pretty. I don't like new new either but I don't count it if it's a gift.

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  2. Oh my GOD that black rose-print dress is BEAUTIFUL and so is the teardrop-print dress! holy jesus the fabric market looks amazing.

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  3. yayyy, so glad you posted about your vietnam haul here! You are right, the dresses look ace!

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  4. Okay that fabric market looks insane! I love the dresses you picked up/got made, especially that corset one.

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  5. I'm so envious!! Those markets look amazing, and the dresses you got made are very cute too. I had no idea that they sell secondhand clothes there.

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  6. those dresses are lovely! and that worked out so cheap to get them made too! when i got mine made in thailand they were quite a lot more expensive but i think i was probably in a more expensive area generally. also that would be so great to have a partner who was really into opshopping as well, lucky girl! :)

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  7. I've always heard tell of getting dresses tailored in Asia a bit wistfully. If I ever visit I'm going to be all over that, and I love your choice of fabrics too!

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  8. Words cannot contain how envious I am. I wish I could have thrown a lot of money at you so I could get custom-made dresses too. These are darling!

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  9. I frigging love everything about this post,Georgia.It makes me desperate to go back to Asia;it's been a few years,and I despite having been to Thailand a squillion times,I still haven't made it to Vietnam!!
    Spectacular haul of frocks!I take it you have a bigger room now?! LOL!
    XXX

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  10. Hi there,
    Could you possibly tell me what market you visited that had the 'ao sida' stalls? I've just moved to Saigon, and would love to have a good rummage through some second-hand stuff, but I haven't managed to find anything like that so far.
    Many thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi, it was one of my mum's coworkers in Vietnam that told my dad's driver where to go, so I'll email my mum and see if she can remember what it was called.

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  11. the dresses are amazing! I love Vietnam! :)

    Best wishes
    Anna
    http://annaley5.blogspot.de/

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