DOAN ATELIER DRESSES FOLKLORE: NÀNG GẤM AND THE LANGUAGE OF SILK
In a time of booming global visibility for Vietnamese creatives, a newfound generation of designers are building a name for themselves in the fashion world. For DOAN Atelier, honoring history while forging the future is woven into the fabric of their collection, Nàng Gấm or Folklore of the Silk Lady. Inspired by traditions that are passed down through generations, Nàng Gấm celebrates the beauty and strength of Vietnamese women throughout history with a vision of the regality of labor.
Jennie (Gia Linh) Doan, a Seneca Polytechnic Fashion Arts designer, revealed her graduate collection last spring, showcasing innovative and bold looks that uphold Vietnamese tradition. The collection earned Jennie a nomination at the recent Canada Arts and Fashion Awards for the Fashion Design Student Award.
EnVi chatted with the team behind DOAN Atelier over Zoom, sibling duo Jennie and Austin Doan, as they dove into their roots, the founding of the brand, and the lore behind Nàng Gấm.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
The Duo Behind DOAN Atelier
As siblings and creative partners, Jennie and Austin’s relationship extends naturally into their collaborative work. Jennie leads the design process, articulating and constructing each piece, while Austin acts as creative director, shaping the collection through layered research and editorial photoshoots.
Hailing from Vietnam, the siblings come from a family deeply rooted in the arts, spanning three generations of musicians and dancers. Jennie has a background in ballet while Austin studied traditional music. When the two moved to Toronto for their studies, they found themselves wanting to venture new paths within the arts. Austin expanded to visual mediums, producing music videos, short films, and documentaries, while Jennie pursued a calling to fashion.
“We’ve always been so fascinated with fashion and I think it makes sense because we’re both in the arts. We’re both performers ourselves and so we have that kind of connection to costume design,” said Austin.
From years of dance rehearsals, seeing racks of glamorous costumes, and witnessing the craftsmanship behind the stage, Jennie saw the overlap between theatrical costuming and haute couture. In dance, where movement and body acts as the language, there is an emphasis on structure in the costumes. Jennie applies this thinking in her designs and believes it to be the core of DOAN Atelier. “Garments have to move a certain way and be seen a certain way.”
Images courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photos by Ashley Ruiz
Coming from a family steeped in classical art forms and the generational inheritance of craft, Jennie and Austin looked back on traditional Vietnamese arts, starting with the stories that they’ve always known. The title of the collection, Folklore of the Silk Lady, indeed draws from the legends, myths, and tales that the two grew up hearing. Inspiration particularly arose for Jennie from heroine histories, from the Trưng sisters, 1st century military commanders who led rebellions, to fairytales of resilient maidens like the story of Tấm and Cám, dubbed as the Vietnamese Cinderella. Along with the stories that Jennie heard from her grandparents and parents about their past and upbringings, she sought to pay homage to the keepers of folklore: the women who carry histories forward.
“I wanted to dive deeper on how women dressed up in the past and what they normally wore. I got inspired by áo dài, our traditional costume, áo yếm, and áo bà ba,” Jennie explained. She dove into research on Vietnamese garments, how it varied across different regions, and how it evolved throughout time.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
Heavy research about the evolution of Vietnamese womenswear went into the collection, led by Austin with his documentary experience. Jennie noted that a main challenge was staying faithful to the historical accuracy of the garments while allowing space for creative reinterpretation.
Silk, Vietnam’s most produced and traditional fabric, takes center stage as the main character of Nàng Gấm, particularly gấm (heavy silk) and lụa (mulberry silk). “When she first pitched this idea, it very much felt like a love letter to silk,” Austin said. “It not only felt like a love letter to the fabric itself, but to Vietnamese women.”
That reverence for material and muse is captured in every piece in Nàng Gấm, reworking traditional Vietnamese attire through a contemporary, editorial sensibility.
The Lore Behind Nàng Gấm
At its core, Nàng Gấm traces the tensions of class, labor, and femininity. The color palette embraces a striking duality of black and yellow, respectively representing the working class and nobility. Black was primarily worn by rural laborers as it was thought to be dirt resistant while farming, while the upper classes wore vibrant yellows, symbolizing wealth, affluence, and authority. And of course, the latter also had the privilege of wearing silk, a luxurious fabric that could only be accessed by those of their social and economic caliber.
The collection features a variety of iconic elements and garments of Vietnamese heritage across different social classes, regions, and occasions, moving from the formal áo dài to everyday silhouettes like áo yếm, a halterneck style undergarment, and áo bà ba, a long sleeved blouse and pant set associated with rural Mekong Delta women.
Looks 2 and 5 exemplify this balance, reinterpreting the garments with a modern approach while maintaining the timeless, rustic, and intimate beauty of a Vietnamese woman. Notably, Look 5 was included in Lady Gaga and Doechii’s RUNWAY music video. Featuring a lotus-leaf patterned skirt that flares around the wearer, like a blooming lotus itself, the look embeds deep cultural imagery into a flashy, high fashion walkway, aligning the motif of Vietnamese femininity and resilience with the song’s theme of confidence.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
Other reimagined accessories included khăn mỏ quạ, a square headscarf worn by rural working women, nón ba tầm, a flat palm hat worn by middle to upper class Northerners, mấn (or khăn đóng), a ceremonial wedding headdress, and kiềng, a silver or gold necklace often passed down as an heirloom.
The inclusion of attire from different regions of Vietnam highlights the diversity of labor and how dress is shaped by place, work, and daily life. Nàng Gấm takes on the utilitarian design of workwear and regal silhouettes of ceremonial garb, intertwining the two into contemporary couture compositions.
This contrast is particularly visible in Look 1, the long robe drawing from áo tơi, a rain cloak made from layered palm leaves as well as áo long bào, a gold, dragon printed robe traditionally reserved for the Emperor, intentionally marrying two garments from polar origins.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
The shape of the skirt in Look 3 mirrors that of nơm bắt cá (fish trapping baskets) while the cascading yellow silk fringes appear like flowing grains of rice, evoking imagery of the generations of agricultural labor and sustenance.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
Look 4 honors ethnic minority communities living in Vietnam’s mountainous regions with its dramatic asymmetrical shoulder piece, emulating rolling hills and tall peaks. Across the piece, carved waves elicit the movement of ruộng bậc thang (terraced rice fields). Worn over a backless áo yếm inspired dress with a bold leg slit along with a wide-brimmed nón ba tầm curtaining the eyes, the look is confident and alluring, capturing the quiet resilience of Vietnamese women.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
From Sketch to Silhouette
Look 4 marks the beginning of Nàng Gấm — the first sketch from which the collection took shape. It was the first design brought to life from Jennie’s original conception, with the initial sketch preserved intact throughout its execution.
Constructing the piece proved to be a learning curve, with Jennie testifying to the difficulty of handling silk. She was also working with a finite supply of material, making it a point to source all silks and fabrics for the collection from Vietnam. Jennie and Austin’s family played their part in the collection’s development, with their parents buying their needed textiles from local markets and artisans in Vietnam before shipping it to Canada. With support from their family, local businesses and artisans, the process reflects an “it takes a village” approach that reinforces the collection’s commitment to Vietnamese authenticity and craftsmanship.
During the call, Jennie showed EnVi a piece of test fabric that she experimented on to create the grooved slashes in the shoulder piece of Look 4, the trademark yellow silk peeking under black canvas and intricate lines of embroidery, each slit and threaded pattern done by hand. Jennie shared that she had dissected an áo dài her mother sent her, studying the layers, seams, and structure to better understand how the garment was assembled.
The painstaking level of detail poured into each piece truly embodied the thematic proverb of Nàng Gấm: khổ trước, sướng sau, translated literally as “suffer first, ease later,” the equivalent of “no pain, no gain.” It’s a saying that Jennie and Austin’s parents have engrained in them and it was especially felt by Jennie as she assembled each piece.
This philosophy of discipline and care is echoed in Jennie’s approach to design. “As a designer, I feel like everything we do we have to have the intention behind it. I don’t want to put something in without any meaning — even down to the smallest detail like a button or a seam.”
Taking on agricultural motifs in the collection, Jennie emphasized the importance of hand labor to “harvest the fruit” of her work. Much like the fishermen, rice harvesters, weavers, and hardworking Vietnamese, it’s precisely this intensive labor and care that must exist in order to preserve delicate beauty. Through the making of this collection, Jennie earned further appreciation of the labor of Vietnamese women throughout history and their contributions in preserving cultural and material tradition.
Nàng Gấm in the World
This is all but a beginning for DOAN Atelier, as Jennie and Austin seek to cement their footing in the fashion industry amidst the fast rhythms of school, jobs, and life. The two are looking towards continuing to familiarize themselves with the industry, connecting with other creative minds, and building their team.
Deeply inspired by all the Vietnamese designers that came before them and their industry peers, the siblings hope that they can join them in occupying space on the global stage to represent a blossoming vision of Vietnamese talent.
Image courtesy of DOAN Atelier. Photo by Ashley Ruiz
During the development and showcase of Nàng Gấm, Jennie and Austin found that many were impressed by the quality of the silk, often remarking, “Wow, is this coming from Vietnam?” The two were initially surprised by this sentiment, as “this is something we could easily have access to, literally if you go to Bến Thành Market, this silk is so abundant, but it is something so unknown to people elsewhere.”
As one of the world’s largest exporters of textiles, Vietnam holds a monumental role in the global fashion supply chain, yet its long legacy of craftsmanship remains underrecognized. It is only recently that Hội An tailors have gone viral on social media to tourists, but for Vietnamese people, tailoring culture has always been a part of daily life, with shops tucked into every corner.
When reflecting on what they hoped both Vietnamese and international audiences take from their future work, Austin told EnVi, “It’s not just about promoting Vietnamese fabrics and products, but also for them to know that ‘Hey, we’re Vietnamese and we can do this.’ This is something from our country and this is something we can do.”
As Jennie and Austin Doan move towards their future bodies of work, DOAN Atelier continues to build on the foundation of Nàng Gấm, translating heritage into modern reimagining. The brand persists in positioning Vietnam as not only a place of production, but a forefront of emerging creative talent, one saturated in rich craftsmanship, cultural memory, and innovation.
At the heart of DOAN Atelier is an ongoing tribute to Vietnamese women, spanning from past to present, whose strength, resilience, and labor continue to shape the fabric of each piece.
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