Vietnamese teens dress up in royal clothes for yearbook photos

Wearing ancient traditional costumes to take yearbook photos was an idea of graduating French majors at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted in the northern province of Nam Dinh.

They took the series of photos at Tran Temple, a popular religious site located in the suburbs of Nam Dinh City, the provincial capital.

Impressed with the series’ unique concept and the theme of promoting traditional culture, netizens have given it over 11,000 likes to date. 

All of the ancient costumes are on hire from a provider who have made clothes for the actors and actresses of the Vietnamese web drama Phuong Khau, according to Tran Minh Thu, a student involved in the project.

They include nhat binh, a dress created in the Nguyen Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of Vietnam; giao linh, a cross-collared robe or cross-collared dress; and ngu than or lap linh, a five-paneled aristocratic gown from the 19th and early-20th centuries.

“When talking about Vietnamese traditional costumes, many people only think of ao dai [Vietnamese long gown]. They forget our country also has other varieties of beautiful, ancient costumes,” Minh Thu said.

“I have got to know the nhat binh as well as ancient costumes in the dynasties of Ly, Tran, and Nguyen for a long time. My friends in our class knew more about them too, thanks to watching Phuong Khau,” she added.

“My classmates chose to wear ancient costumes to take photos for the yearbook because we love them, and we want to promote the Vietnamese tradition as well.”

To make the series of photos, Minh Thu’s class prepared for them from the beginning of the school year. Their plan was delayed until May 24 because of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Minh Thu says she will not forget the moments when she and her classmates were sweating while wearing the layered clothes.

Despite the scorching heat, all of the students tried to pose perfectly to get a beautiful series of photos.

“Although we are a French language class, we still want to do something relating to Vietnamese tradition. Vietnamese ancient costumes are very beautiful and comparable to other countries’ [traditional clothes],” Thu said.

“These costumes are also colorful, so all my classmates supported the concept of making the yearbook. We even successfully convinced our homeroom teacher to take part in the plan.”

Charges for the rental clothes were rather costly, yet the students still rented other props such as fans and traditional musical instruments to make them look even more similar to the people living in the past.

Because of the popularity of the photo series, many other young people have expressed an interest in creating their own photo series to highlight the ancient costumes of Vietnam.

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