Ao dai from 100 years ago in Hue, and the eternal question: wearing something like that, isn't it hot?

The two photos below were taken in Hue in the 1920s. Almost every modern viewer asks the same first question: with the weather at 38 degrees, how could anyone bear to dress so covered up like that?

The answer is a bit counterintuitive: thin fabric, a loose fit, and fully covering the skin actually keeps you cooler than exposing it to the sun. Traditional áo dài is sewn from silk or thin gauze, isn't tight-fitting, and has two open front-and-back panels that let the breeze flow in from below. It works on almost the same principle as desert robes.

But what's really trendy is the hairstyle.

The Hue-style hair bun — wrapping the hair around the head and pinning it in place — takes quite a lot of time every morning and traps heat at the back of the neck. This is probably why the conical leaf hat exists: not to look charming, but to save the nape of the neck.

A few things about the ao dai in Hue today:

Hue is one of the rare places where the áo dài is still genuinely worn to work and to school, not just on special occasions. Girls wearing white áo dài are simply an everyday sight there. • The color purple is associated with Hue to the point of becoming its trademark, even though no one can point to any written regulation that decrees it. • There is a service that rents out ao dai for photo shoots, costing around 100,000–200,000 dong per session. Taking photos at the Imperial Citadel or by the Perfume River is the most popular. If you're renting an outfit, you should choose early morning or late afternoon — not because of the lighting, but because you'll immediately understand what the beginning of this article is talking about.