Cover up please, we're Viets By Roger Mitton
Publisher:The Straits Times - Publication Date: 28-05-2008

The culture czars of Viet Nam are telling beauty pageant contestants and fashion models to cover up, even as the country gears up to host the Miss Universe pageant.

The contest, which will be broadcast globally from Nha Trang in July, is being touted as the biggest international event to be held here since the end of the Viet Nam War.

Arts and performance regulations ban sexy stage displays but do not clearly define how much flesh can be bared.

In recent weeks, however, Communist Party officials have made it tougher for shows to be held unless outfits that they consider too scanty are redesigned or shrouded with a shawl or cape.

Professor Trinh Duy Luan, director of Hanoi's Institute for Social Studies, said: "Monitoring stage performers to stop them from wearing clothes that might be regarded as too sexy is a hot issue now."

At the recent Vietnam Super Model Contest 2008, for instance, the competitors were forced to don capes during the swimwear section.

There is now concern that such rules, if applied to the Miss Universe pageant, will make Vietnam appear prudish and behind the times.

"The world's fashion shows, like the Miss Universe contest, have rules to stop the girls from wearing inappropriate clothing, so there's no need for Vietnam to start making its own rules," said Luan.

Organisers of fashion shows must obtain prior approval from the Culture Ministry's local officials.

Many retailers and designers are criticising the crackdown, saying it will stifle the development of Vietnam's own garment industry.

Vu Ha, manager of a trendy clothing outlet in Ha Noi, said: "What the models are wearing is not indecent or even low-necked. The officials are too conservative and out of date, they should start to move with the times."

One of Viet Nam's best-known designers, Mr Vo Viet Chung, chastised the state censors.

"A trashy half-naked disco dancer is different from a lady in a party dress that reveals her bare back," he said. "We understand the difference between elegance and erotica."

Viet Anh, a salesman for Hanoi's Hoang Duong Fashion Company, said: "These petty restrictions will hold back our fashion industry and make Viet Nam seem like Saudi Arabia or Iran."

As the much-hyped Miss Universe pageant looms, there is concern about how censorship may affect it.

"If the Miss Universe candidates are asked to wear shawls, it will make a mockery of the contest in Viet Nam," said Ha.

The local media has also pointed out that while tastefully dressed models must cover up, Viet Nam's streets are filled with billboards showing nearly nude women advertising underwear.

Hoang Ngan, designer and fashion lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City's Architecture University, said: "I don't understand why swimsuits and lingerie are prohibited at fashion shows while they are still graphically advertised in shops and other public places."

Miss Universe organisers such as the Ho Chi Minh City-based Thanh Nien Film Company are nonplussed.

Its vice-director, Ho Van Dac, who will be in charge of the show's swimsuit section, said: "At the moment, I don't have any information about whether this cover-up rule will be applied to the Miss Universe contest in July. But personally, I don't think the Ministry of Culture will ask us to do it."

He added: "I say that because when the Miss Earth 2007 contest was held at Nha Trang, where the Miss Universe contest will take place, they did not ask candidates to follow this rule."

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