Vietnam’s made-to-measure fashion brands are thriving in the TikTok era

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Vietnamese labels are finding fans online as fashionistas and celebrities embrace them.
The items are of better quality and more sustainable than Chinese fast fashion.
Vietnamese fashion brands may opt to stay small to remain distinct.

When Jennie from South Korean girl band Blackpink posted pictures of a new eyewear collection, her fans zeroed in on her gray miniskirt. They tracked down the lace-edged skirt to Vietnamese brand L Seoul, and nearly crashed its website with their orders, cementing its reputation as a favorite of K-pop stars and fashionistas alike.

The “Jennie effect” brought hundreds of new fans to the Ho Chi Minh City-based brand, which is riding a wave of popularity on social media. Hashtags such as #Vietnamfashion and #Vietnamesefashion on Instagram and TikTok have amassed tens of thousands of gushing posts and millions of likes, in contrast to the growing disenchantment with Chinese fast fashion brands Shein and Temu.

“It started around two years ago,” Phan Hoang Hanh, a dressmaker in Hanoi, told Rest of World. “I think it has a lot to do with the many viral TikTok videos of tourists showing off their tailor-made clothes from Vietnam.” The 25-year-old said she posts pictures and videos of her brand Phoebe Vietnam on Instagram and TikTok, and gets more than a dozen overseas orders every month — from the U.S. to Qatar. They make up a third of her clientele, she said, keeping the five tailors in her workshop busy.

Vietnam has long been a manufacturing hub for global apparel brands including Nike, H&M, and Uniqlo. The “Made in Vietnam” label brought curious tourists to tailors and dressmakers in the alleys of Hanoi and Hoi An for linen suits and silk dresses that cost a fraction of what they would pay at home. Word of their good workmanship and high quality gradually spread online, and in recent years, young designers like Cong Tri, Le Thanh Hoa, and Phuong My have dressed up stars including Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Katy Perry.

The celebrity spotlight paved the way for Vietnamese brands such as Fanci Club, La Lune, Bupbes, and L Seoul. Their chic, affordable designs have been embraced by young influencers like Bella Hadid, Doja Cat, and Olivia Rodrigo, as well as K-pop bands Blackpink and Aespa. These endorsements have fueled a growing interest in Vietnamese fashion, Rebecca Morris, an associate lecturer in fashion at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Vietnam, told Rest of World.

“A lot of local brands kind of exploded over the last few years; it really testifies to the power of social media,” Morris said. “Long gone are the days of people just wanting to wear big designer brands. Young shoppers want to stand out, maybe wear something from a lesser-known brand — something a bit more unique, so they can feel they’ve discovered something that maybe not everybody else knows.”

Vietnamese fashion ticks that box for Jovanka Yaputra, an Indonesian fashion student in California, who goes by Gabrielle on TikTok. She stopped shopping at Zara and H&M two years ago because their $50 tops, made of polyester, were “not worth it anymore,” she told Rest of World. The much cheaper alternatives from Temu and Shein were even worse, barely surviving two washes, she said.

Then, pictures on Instagram of a rosette choker made by Fanci Club caught her eye. The 25-year-old quickly went down a rabbit hole of Vietnamese fashion brands on social media, “sometimes reverse image searching to see what brand it was,” she said. Jovanka found several small Vietnamese labels using natural fabrics like cotton and linen that lasted longer, had a smaller environmental impact, and were priced sensibly. She placed her first order with Red Bean earlier this year.

“I was very impressed with how neat it is. You can tell the quality is very nice,” Jovanka said, describing a white lace minidress and a top paired with a pleated skirt. She is now awaiting an order from another Vietnamese label, Shu Shi. “Big fast fashion brands are out,” she said in a post on TikTok, telling her more than 120,000 followers to check out Southeast Asian brands, instead.

Vietnamese labels are finding favor just as dominant Chinese fast fashion brands Shein and Temu have come under growing scrutiny. The manufacturers have been selling directly to international consumers online, tapping their extensive supply chains to churn out a dizzying array of styles at impossibly cheap prices. But increasingly, Shein is being called out for its use of forced labor, for copying designs, and for the environmental impact of hazardous chemicals and items being discarded after one use. Shein has denied the allegations. But while millions of shoppers still show off their cheap purchases under #sheinhaul on TikTok, there are also millions of disgruntled posts under “What I Ordered vs What I Got.”

Buying from small Vietnamese labels and dressmakers is a safer and better choice, Philippine actor and TikTok influencer Maronne Cruz told Rest of World. “I like that it’s locally made,” and that the small businesses are not producing “unhealthy amounts that harm the environment,” she said.

Cruz, too, discovered Vietnamese fashion online. Inspired, she visited Ho Chi Minh City last year to shop, then shared her “small haul” with her 100,000 followers on TikTok. Posing in outfits from Liniss, she praised the fabric, the details, and the flattering cuts, and wondered aloud why more people weren’t talking about Vietnamese fashion.

That post went viral, prompting her to make more content on Vietnamese fashion, Cruz said. Her followers have messaged her to ask about the brands she showcased. “I got comments saying, ‘My cart is full of all these brands because of you,’ and ‘I’m booking a flight to Vietnam because of your videos,’” she said.

To cater to their growing overseas clientele, several Vietnamese brands are on the big Southeast Asian e-commerce sites, Shopee and Lazada. L Seoul is opening a shop in Bangkok for its many Thai buyers, and has Dubai in its sights. Less than a year after it received its first international order, about 60% of its customers today are outside Vietnam, a spokesperson told Rest of World.

But while they are gaining in popularity, Vietnamese brands are no match for the Chinese fast fashion behemoths. Shein is reported to have had revenues of more than $30 billion last year, and is considering a listing in London. In comparison, Vietnam’s e-commerce fashion industry will reach about $3 billion this year, according to estimates by Statista.

Phan’s aspirations for Phoebe Vietnam are modest. She said she would like to set up a small store eventually, but first, she would like to help popularize Vietnamese fashion. “I want more foreigners to know about the quality of Vietnamese fashion, from the craftsmanship to the design to the products,” Phan said.

Staying small may be to the advantage of Vietnamese fashion brands, according to Morris. “I don’t think we really want to see a Vietnam version of Shein,” she said. “I think we can do our own version, which is accessible, not necessarily as cheap, but is sustainable.”