Nowadays in southern Viet Nam, even in rural areas and in the highlands, brides often wear high heels and white, Western-style wedding dresses complete with veils and flowing trains. Although not all brides have abandoned traditional attire, those who do choose traditional Vietnamese garments seldom select the styles worn in times gone by.
Various theories account for the origin of traditional southern Vietnamese wedding attire. According to one, designers drew their inspiration from the costumes worn by mandarins at the emperor's court in Hue. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a well-to-do bride wore a thin, tight-fitting black dress over trousers made of dark pink linen and then a long, loose brocade tunic, which was dark blue or grey on the outside and dark pink inside. The tunic sleeves covered her hands. The buttons were on the left side in accordance with the Confucian rule that the heart be covered. Five buttons represented the five Confucian virtues (ngũ thường): benevolent love, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. The bride also wore silver earrings and a necklace of amber jewels as large as one's thumb.
The groom usually wore a long, tight-fitting black tunic made of luzing, a semitransparent material. The tunic had a mandarin collar and was slit on the sides from the waist down with buttons arranged in a row on the side. Underneath this tunic, he wore a white long-sleeved shirt and long white trousers. On top, he wore another tunic similar to the bride's. His black turban had five pleats representing the five Confucian virtues.
The custom of wearing two layers (áo cặp) evolved from the practice observed by some rich Vietnamese families in the centre of the country. The ancient tradition was to wear three or seven layers (áo mớ). Because of the heat, some people stopped at two layers, no doubt saving many couples from discomfort.
Nowadays, no rules dictate what couples must wear. Brides commonly wear áo dài, the Vietnamese long dress, for the traditional ceremony before the ancestral altar and then switch to Western-style gowns for the banquet. Grooms usually wear Western-style suits and ties for the entire wedding.
If you attend a Vietnamese wedding now, you will no longer see brides wearing tunics and yellow turbans and walking softly in embroidered slippers. Instead, you may find them in white Western gowns, clicking along in high heels, their faces shielded by a veil adorned with flowers, while the grooms in their dark suits look like bankers. Some Vietnamese observing this new Western wedding attire may become nostalgic for the time when Vietnamese brides and grooms dressed in a way unique to Viet Nam.