Fashion Label, Hanoi

The appeal of Vietnamese clothing label Kilomet109 lies not only in its ecological philosophy, cultural preservation, and economic and creative respect of ethnic artisans, but also in how these values are translated into utilitarian yet poetic designs.

Kilomet109 transforms ancient craft into contemporary eco-fashion

Scrolling through the Instagram account of Hanoi-based fashion label Kilomet109 reveals image upon image of indigo garments. But this is not the usual synthetic dye — rather, it’s the result of a process rooted in traditional techniques shared across generations of ethnic minorities in Vietnam.

‘It was a eureka moment when I laid eyes on them twelve years ago’, says Thảo Vũ, founder and head designer of Kilomet109, of her first encounter with the traditional indigo costumes of the Nùng An ethnic group. ‘At the time, I was reading a book on the history of indigo in Southeast Asia, as well as doing my research on natural dyeing techniques,’ she says. ‘And so, to encounter this colour, extraordinarily muted with an understated depth, was a lucky coincidence. My heart was truly moved.’

A month later, Vũ took the bus from Hanoi to Cao Bằng, a province in north-eastern Vietnam, and ended up staying a week to learn, practise and experiment with the local Nùng An community. Since founding Kilomet109 in 2012 (the name is inspired by the distance between Hanoi and her home town of Thái Bình), she has forged similarly collaborative relationships with five different ethnic minority communities across Vietnam, regularly visiting the villages and incorporating their traditional techniques such as batik beeswax drawing and calendering into Kilomet109’s garments.

‘Although sustainability is a word on everyone’s lips these days, I didn’t start Kilomet109 with that particular concept in mind,’ says Vũ. ‘Back then, I was simply drawn to these people and their crafts, stemming from my previous experience as a culture journalist.’ Vũ had graduated with a degree in literature and English before working as a writer for various lifestyle magazines. Later, after the birth of her child, she enrolled in the London College for Design & Fashion in Hanoi with the intention of bettering her knowledge to write about fashion, then a relatively new industry in Vietnam; she was also encouraged in this by her husband after she began making clothes for their baby. The transition from journalism to fashion is, to her, a natural continuation of her passion and interests, with fashion design being ‘another form of writing’.

And while traditional craft is celebrated as a national treasure inextricably linked to Vietnam’s identity, for Vũ, it still lacks a voice among the country’s emerging globalised creative industries. As opposed to the top-down structure of the ‘conventionally presumed hierarchy between artists, designers and artisans’, she says she considers the relationship ‘more like a triangle’. ‘Artisans are folk artists to me, whose skills and knowledge are like alluvium to rivers that nurture rice fields, honed through centuries and generations, without which I don’t think any conceptual, contemporary ideas can take shape,’ she says.

Working with their network of artisans, Vũ and her studio team in Hanoi have succeeded in transforming seemingly esoteric materials into contemporary pieces. ‘I see my role as an interpreter bridging divides,’ she says. ‘Between independent ethnic communities, tradition and modernity, and ultimately the relationship between a consumer and her purchase. There’s always craft in design, and design in craft.’