Emily's Traveling Adventures: A Christmas Dress in Hoi An

A busy marketplace in Hoi An, Vietnam

After spending several action-packed days in Hanoi, we left and took an airplane to Hoi An, Vietnam, which is south of Hanoi and on the coast. We spent about 2 days in Hoi An, one of which was Christmas. Hoi An is a great little village - way smaller than Hanoi, and it was nice to take a break from all of the heavy traffic. Hoi An is known for their tailors, and making clothes to order, so while we were there my mom and I had some clothes made for us. My mom got a skirt, and I got two dresses. We were going to get my sister something, but we didn’t have enough time. At the tailors, first you pick out what type of clothes you want: jackets, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, and then you tell them what fabric you want. At the tailor we went to, they had tons of different fabrics, ranging from silk to cotton, and everything in between. There are also more plain fabrics that are only one color, and fabrics that have more unusual designs. Once you have your style, fabric, and design; they would take your measurements and quickly get to work. It only took them about a day and a half to finish the dresses and skirt, which was good, because we only had 2 days! I'm excited to have two new dresses, and the first ones ever made just for me.

A fitting at the tailor (No, I'm not naked, just no peeking at my new dress!)

While we were in Hoi An we went out in the town to eat one night, and as soon as we sat down these three guys walk in with crazy suits on. One of them had really puffy shoulders, and then a long tail on their jacket, and another had had of his suit checkered, and the other half strips, in bright colors. It was really funny to see, I guess not all people go to the tailors to get fancy things.