For these incredible creations, monochromatic silk garments serve as canvases, upon which the colorful ribbon renderings of Vietnamese animals and plants are sewn.
A shadow-coated tiger looming behind various flowers; a standing peacock showing off its turquoise tail with golden eyes; or, a crane dangling on a branch of white apricot blossoms: the nuanced, vivid and realistic artwork might lead one to mistake them for nature itself.
Their creator, Tran Duong, was so deeply impressed by the embroideries she saw during her journey to Malaysia in 2012 that after returning to Saigon, she was determined to learn the craft. “My first teacher,” she told Style-Republik, “was my mother and an old Chinese book on hand embroidery.”
A separate interview with T·pot revealed that “the poignant, burning red, the weather-beaten, twisty limbs and the gold-plated almond blossoms” in a painting by Van Gogh are also profound inspirations. As a result, flowers are prominent in Duong’s designs. With a color chart she developed herself and an eye for perfect gradients, Duong transforms her ribbons – made of translucent voile or silk instead of the conventional, opaque satin – into patterns famously known as “Duong’s flowers” (Hoa của Đường).
“Her products look so beautiful and real,” singer Pham Ngoc Trieu told Zing. Trieu chose a re-imagined áo dài with an embroidered image of a rooster, which Duong said features more than 10 different colors and is the fruition of her “studying every moment of the chicken’s tail, neck and comb.” Her perseverance has paid off: the garments were very popular during last year’s Tet holidays.
Nowadays, she often receives commission from fashion designers across the country. Yet glamor does little to disrupt her. Every day, inside her small, humble home in District 4, Duong continues to fine-tune her art, crafting realistic ribbon designs that will win the heart of every fashionista nationwide, the news source shares.
Check out some of Duong's amazing creations below.
[Photos via Behance user Tran Duong]
