Fashion as an entity

“What contributes to the making of a city? From architecture to human psychology. From the space occupied by individuals to a collection of public spaces. From planned development to endless expansion” – excerpt from the introduction of the City as Studio exhibition, held in Hong Kong in April 2023.

According to its description, City as Studio introduces urban environments as places where people may express their individuality and creativity, as well as collaborate with other industries such as fashion.

If we consider fashion as a sort of living entity, then metropolises are ideal spaces for it to thrive. New York, Paris, London and Milan are four hubs with hundreds of high-profile venues for biannual fashion weeks. They are also never-sleeping cities where bustling commercial activities take place and dense production workshops are located, chosen by both the most skilled artisans and the oldest fashion houses.

In the well-developed fashion capitals of the West, the industry operates smoothly. But what does the future hold for smaller-scale cities in Asia, including Vietnam’s developing fashion scenes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City?

On November 30, 2023, Pharrell Williams brought the Louis Vuitton Menswear Pre-Fall 2024 runway to Hong Kong. This was only Pharrell’s second collection in his role as Creative Director for Louis Vuitton’s menswear. The trend of turning to Asia as a catwalk venue is clearly no longer new. After all, alongside modern development intertwined with the ancient scenery, Asia is also a major market with its own entertainment stars and massive purchasing power. Global brands’ perspectives on Asian cities have been further expanded, moving beyond the big names of China, South Korea and Japan as Vietnam begins to emerge as one of the venues for Western fashion to create imagery.

For instance, the fashion label Lemaire and photographer Osma Harvilahti’s journey to Ho Chi Minh City came to an end with the On The Motor Scooter campaign shoot, which promoted the brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection.

Christophe Lemaire and Sarah Linh Tran turned to Vietnam when thinking about the theme of mobility, as life in Vietnam’s largest city mostly takes place “on the road.” In the photoshoot, we can easily recognize familiar images of three generations of a family on a motor scooter, women in head-to-toe sun-protecting floral outfits or men striking a precarious balance, carrying a mountain of goods while still being able to chat and smoke. In short, urban life is portrayed in various ways that all revolve around activity and movement, and the outfits from the French brand seamlessly integrated into the evolving urban landscape of Vietnam. As the fashion house said, “Behind the locals, under the helmet, is the structure of the whole human body, as well as the city where society lives.”