Escaping the rain with a LUXE guide and Vietnamese iced coffee at L’usine.
Our first day in Ho Chi Minh City revolved around escaping the heavy downpour, mastering how to cross the traffic light-less streets in one piece, communicating with our hands/facial expressions and scoping out boutique stores.
As with our experiences in Jakarta, Bali, Ubud and Chiang Mai, most of the so-called “boutique stores” we checked out were far from what we had in mind. What we expected: fashion boutique-cum cafe-cum art galleries displaying an eclectic mix of international and local designer brands. What we saw: confusing selections of leftover inventory pulled from seasons passed and random merchandise our mothers wouldn’t be caught dead in. It was disappointing as we were hoping to discover/poach new designers this way. Digital stalking, I mean research, RESEARCH(!!), had only taken me so far. I knew we had to be on the ground to see what the fashion design scene was like.
Khumpoon: the only cool concept store we found in Chiang Mai. We randomly found a flyer in the lobby of our hotel.
One of the owners of Khumpoon manning the cashier and food. He worked in Hong Kong for a year before returning to Chiang Mai and opening his store.
Black tea from Harrods with a side of apple & berry crumble.
Sitting on props in L’usine’s store on Dong Khoi Street. Wearing a statement necklace from Ade.G, one of our Singapore-based jewelry designers.
Contrary to my research, we only came across 2 cool stores: Kumphoon in Chiang Mai and L’usine here in Ho Chi Minh. The first carried a fun, varied assortment of home & living goods, while the latter imported cool brands from abroad. Both were rather light on local designers, which made me wonder if it was because there’s a lack of great emerging jewelry designers or a lack of emerging jewelry designers altogether. Maybe we’re looking in all the wrong places, but for the time being, I’ll be spending less time and energy trying to uncover under-the-radar designers I’m not sure exist - yet.
xx Ling
