THE STORY OF 3 FOREIGNERS “FALLING IN LOVE” WITH VIETNAM
A SPANISH FASHION DESIGNER, A SWISS JOURNALIST AND A BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHER - THEY ARE ALL FOREIGNERS WHO HAVE LIVED OR ARE LIVING IN VIETNAM AND ARE DEEPLY ATTACHED TO THIS COUNTRY. ON THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING, LET'S TALK TO THESE VISITORS WHO ACTIVELY TRY TO PROMOTE VIETNAM'S IMAGE, CULTURE AND TOURISM TO THE WORLD BECAUSE OF THEIR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR THIS COUNTRY.
Full name: Nic Shonfeld Nationality: English Residence: London, soon moving back to Vietnam Occupation: Photographer Achievement in Vietnam: ‘New for Old’ project, ‘Phiêu’ exhibition…
NIC SHONFELD: “BEHIND THE PHOTOS, THERE ARE MANY IMPORTANT STORIES TO TELL”
Six years ago, on the way from the airport to a friend’s house in Hanoi, British photographer Nic Shonfeld realized that his three week holiday was not enough. By the end of the first day in Vietnam, he was already making plans to come back - not only to travel but to live. A year later, Nic returned to Vietnam. In 2016, Nic was invited to document the ‘New for Old’ project, a British Council research residency which took place across Southeast Asia bringing together academics, artisans of ethnic minority groups and contemporary creatives to find ways of supporting Vietnamese female artisans and promoting traditional crafts and heritage for social inclusion and economic development. Nic’s informal portraits of the artisans were a headline feature of the culminating exhibition ‘Phiêu’ held at The Hanoi Centre for Culture & Arts in 2017. “After working in music and fashion, I had become interested in fabrics, textiles and natural dye processes, most notably indigo, whilst I was working with a historic clothing archivist in London. So, this project was quite a turning point for me,” Nic says. “Contributing to the encouragement of people to engage with each other to share and manage cultural heritage, and work in a more sustainable way to improve quality of life was an extremely fulfilling project to be a part of.”
Whilst frequently traveling to the mountainous regions of Northern and Central Vietnam for his photography work, Nic has been based in Hanoi, for the past five years, where the “chaotic charm” has been something of a magnet for him. “I adore the muted tones of the often-dilapidated architecture pitted against the constant honking and controlled chaos in the streets. In that respect Hanoi is really photogenic.”
Currently, Nic has come back to his ordinary life in London to finish his postgraduate course. The journey home made him realize that he wants to continue his photography career in Vietnam.
“I will return in March to continue with my project which is bigger, more personal and cultural. Its official working title is ‘Highlanders/người Thượng’. It is an intimate, empathic documentation of peripheral ethnic communities in Vietnam in connection to the preservation of historic identities and culture. The aim is to enrich public perceptions by increasing understanding of the complexities in rural life, both in its beauty and in its hardship. Equally, my hopes are that younger generations of the ethnic groups may start to feel inspired to preserve and sustain their heritage in a changing era. Through this project, I hope people start to look beyond the typical tourist-orientated depictions of the ethnic groups. I believe the reality behind the people in these romanticised images is an important story to tell.”
You can find out more about Highlanders project at nicshonfeld.com
Full name: Anemi Wick Nationality: Switzerland Residence: Switzerland and Germany Occupation: Journalist Achievement in Vietnam: Writing two travel guide books about Vietnam
ANEMI WICK: “VIỆT NAM VẪN LÀ MIỀN ĐẤT BÍ ẨN”
Swiss journalist Anemi Wick first came to Vietnam in 2009 for a project with Vietnam News and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Subsequently, she has kept on returning for a variety of different projects throughout the years and to travel to many different corners of the country. Over the course of 10 years, these trips have provided Anemi Wick with interesting and inspiring material to write, rewrite and update guide books on Vietnam.
So far she has written two guide books about Vietnam, assigned by two different publishers. Both books are in German. The first one, titled (translated to English) “Where the Buffalo Grazes Between the Lines”, is a collection of anecdotes and funny experiences that she, her coauthor and expat friends have had in Vietnam while traveling, buying clothes, taking a taxi, trying to communicate, queueing, crossing the street, ordering at the bia hoi, and so on. They collected these stories, and then asked their Vietnamese friends to explain the situations. The second book is an update of the travel guide book “Reise Know-how Vietnam”. Anemi Wick traveled the country to research old and new destinations and collected travel advice in all regions to help German readers understand Vietnam better in an entertaining way. In addition to her experience, previously published guide books about Vietnam and online travel tips are also the basis for her research to complete “Reise know-how Vietnam”.
Anemi Wick recounted: “During the past ten years I saw places as famous as Ha Long Bay and as remote as a mountain village in Kon Tum Province, as deep as the caves of Phong Nha-ke Bang National Park and as high as the summit of Fansipan, and I never got bored with indulging in Vietnam’s rightfully world famous food, but what stuck most was the friendly openmindedness of the people. I think people in Vietnam are much more sociable than Europeans. I wouldn’t be much wiser, and I couldn’t have written those books, if it weren’t for the people I met in Vietnam. My friends had all the answers; I just had the questions.
Vietnam is changing at an incredibly fast pace, in a globalized world which is getting smaller and smaller. And while Vietnam, and the whole of Asia, is still to some degree a place full of mysteries and novelties to us slow Europeans, the young generation in Vietnam has known and understood the outside world for a long time. They are, in many ways, two steps ahead of us with their wide horizon and their thinking outside the box. And thanks to their open-mindedness, it is easy for us foreigners to make friends, to find a common ground, even to feel at home in Vietnam.”
The books were received well. The readers appreciate background information about the history, culture, food and nature of Vietnam, and some people wrote in their reviews that they were very keen on the street food tips and love to explore Vietnam’s many culinary specialties when visiting the country.
NHÀ THIẾT KẾ DIEGO CORTIZAS: “VIỆT NAM LÀ TẤT CẢ ĐỐI VỚI CHÚNG TÔI”
Những người yêu thời trang hẳn đều biết tới Chula - thương hiệu thời trang kết hợp đầy ấn tượng và tinh tế giữa văn hoá truyền thống Việt Nam với những nhấn nhá đậm nét Tây Ban Nha. Và thương hiệu đó được khởi nguồn từ tình yêu của cặp vợ chồng nhà thiết kế: Diego Cortizas.
Diego Cortizas và Laura Fontan, vợ ông, đến Việt Nam năm 2004 để thăm anh trai của Laura và tiện thể đi du lịch khắp đất nước. Ngay lập tức, vợ chồng Diego Cortizas đã dành tình yêu cho ẩm thực, phong cảnh..., và hàng dệt may của Việt Nam. Họ quyết định nghỉ việc ở Tây Ban Nha để có thể ở lại Việt Nam lâu hơn. Ba tháng sau đó, Laura có thai nên vợ chồng họ quyết định ở lại và con gái đầu lòng của họ, Carmen, được sinh ra ở Việt Nam.
Một bước ngoặt khác đã thay đổi cuộc sống của Diego Cortizas và Laura trong năm ấy là họ cùng nhau mở doanh nghiệp thiết kế của riêng mình. Chula ra đời và nhanh chóng chinh phục công chúng yêu thời trang từ những thiết kế đầu tiên. Điểm nổi bật trong các sản phẩm của Chula là việc sử dụng khéo léo các chất liệu đặc trưng của Việt Nam như lụa, lanh hay thổ cẩm... kết hợp cùng các đường thêu tay tinh tế, những hình khối màu sắc độc đáo. Diego Cortizas chia sẻ: “Ngay từ đầu, chúng tôi đã cảm thấy có một sự kết nối đặc biệt với phong cách thời trang Việt Nam. Bởi vậy, chúng tôi đã sử dụng lụa tơ tằm, cũng như các chất liệu vải thổ cẩm của bà con dân tộc thiểu số Việt Nam trong các thiết kế của mình”.
Không những thế, khát khao của Diego Cortizas còn là giới thiệu vẻ đẹp của Việt Nam và mang những sản phẩm mang đậm nét văn hóa đặc trưng của Việt Nam ra thế giới thông qua Chula. Hiện nay, hàng tháng, Chula tổ chức từ 1-3 sự kiện pop-up tại những quốc gia khác nhau trên toàn thế giới và mỗi mùa hè luôn có những buổi trình diễn lớn tại châu Âu và Mỹ. Với những triển lãm, show thời trang liên tiếp trong nước lẫn quốc tế như show thời trang “Chula loves Hanoi”, bộ sưu tập lấy cảm hứng từ họa tiết hình kỷ hà tại Vietnam Fashion Week
2020 hay những show trình diễn thời trang Chula trong khuôn khổ
Vietnam Culture Day tại Rome (Ý), Washington DC (Mỹ), Chula đã thực sự trở thành cầu nối giữa văn hoá Việt Nam với bạn bè quốc tế.
15 năm sống và làm việc ở Hà Nội, nhà thiết kế đến từ Tây Ban Nha này đã thực sự trở thành một phần ở đây và lúc này, gia đình ông cũng đang mong chờ Tết đến. “Tết Nguyên đán là một trong những thời điểm yêu thích nhất trong năm của chúng tôi, bởi vì nó rất đặc biệt và rất khác với bất kỳ nơi nào trên thế giới. Những tuần trước Tết thì năng động và hối hả, còn sau Tết thì không khí trầm lắng lại và thành phố dường như thay đổi rất nhiều chỉ trong vài ngày ngắn ngủi. Đó là khoảng thời gian để bình tâm nghĩ về một năm đã qua và hy vọng về một năm mới đang đến. Các con của chúng tôi cũng rất háo hức mỗi dịp Tết đến vì được nhận lì xì. Những người bạn Việt Nam luôn hào phóng với chúng tôi. Việt Nam là tất cả đối với chúng tôi, từ gia đình đến công việc kinh doanh!”.
Tên: Diego Cortizas Del Valle Quốc tịch: Tây Ban Nha Nơi ở: Hà Nội Nghề nghiệp: Nhà thiết kế Thành tựu đạt được ở Việt Nam: Thành lập và phát triển thương hiệu thời trang Chula
Full name: Diego Cortizas Del Valle Nationality: Spain Residence: Hanoi Occupation: Fashion designer Achievement in Vietnam: Creating and promoting Chula fashion brand
DESIGNER DIEGO CORTIZAS: “VIETNAM IS EVERYTHING TO US”
Fashion lovers all know about Chula - a fashion brand that represents an impressive and sophisticated combination of traditional Vietnamese cultural characteristics and bold Spanish features. And all of that comes from the love of fashion designer Diego Cortizas.
Diego Cortizas and Laura Fontan, his wife, arrived in Vietnam in 2004 totally by chance to visit Laura’s brother and travel around the country. From the moment they arrived they fell in love with the people, the food, the landscape and the textiles of Vietnam and they decided to quit their jobs in Spain and stay longer. Then after 3 months in Vietnam, Laura became pregnant and the couple decided to stay here when their first daughter - Carmen - was born.
This first year in Vietnam changed not only their personal lives but their professional lives as they decided to work together as a couple and open their own design business. Chula was established and quickly enchanted fashion lovers with their very first designs. The highlight of Chula’s products is the skillful use of typical Vietnamese materials such as silk, linen or brocade combined with delicate embroideries, creating an explosion of colors and unique patterns. Diego Cortizas shared: “Since the beginning we felt very connected with Vietnam fashion and we started to use Vietnamese silk and traditional embroideries from the ethnic minorities in our products.” The desire of Diego Cortizas is also to introduce the beauty of Vietnam and bring Chula’s products with Vietnamese cultural characteristics to the world. Nowadays, Chula hosts host 1-3 Pop-ups every month in different countries around the world and every summer it has big fashion shows in Europe and USA. With consecutive domestic and international displays, such as the “Chula loves Hanoi” fashion show, the collection inspired by the geometric pattern at Vietnam Fashion Week 2020, or the Chula fashion shows at Vietnam Culture Day in Rome (Italy) or Washington DC (USA), Chula has really become a bridge between Vietnamese culture and international fashion lovers. After 15 years living and working in Hanoi, the Spanish designer has really become a part of this city and now his family is also looking forward to the coming Tet. He said: “Tet Holidays are one of our favorite times of the year, because is so special and so different from celebrations in other parts of the world. The weeks before Tet are so dynamic and after that Tet is so familiar and the city changes so much. It is a time to think about the whole year that has passed and to look ahead for new perspectives. Of course, my kids love Tet for all the lucky money! Vietnamese friends were always so generous with us at this time of the year. Vietnam is everything for us, from family to business.”