KVT – The House that is Chula

Colloquially, if you’re Spanish, when you really appreciate something you will invariably exclaim, ‘chula’. Translated into English slang it means ‘cool’, really cool!

Then there are ‘chula women’. When you are in a Spanish place and you come across a female who is self assured, proud of whom she is, you will probably give her a chula compliment . And it is for these Chula women that Laura and Diego design clothing (and for them and their equally chula men, that Diego is, again, designing furniture).

 Chula fashion is very unique. Some pieces displays the geometric influence I wrote about earlier. Others have a touch of lyrical abstraction. Some carry special embroidery while some have hand painted designs on them, a touch of fashion fusion brilliantly appropriated from old Vietnamese silk painting. And it is Vietnamese silk that Diego likes to feature in a lot of his outfits, off set by other quality fabrics, usually made inVietnam.

Aspiring chula women can visit Chula’s retail room and choose ready made clothing from the racks and, if they like a particular piece or style, have it altered on site to suit them, or have a replica made (though, as Diego points out, there are no exact replicas so every Chula buyer is assured that her garment is an original. No two designs are the same, he says, they are more like brothers and sisters, never identical twins).

Totally chula women usually sit down with Diego and talk with him and while they weave stories Diego will weave a design for them, on paper, and have it created in the Chula workshop.

He refuses to make copies of garments from other fashion houses or from pictures taken from fashion magazines, preferring to leave that trade to commercial artisans who work all over the city.

A good example of Chula design for a chula woman are the outfits Diego is commissioned to create for gallerist Suzanne Lecht each time she hosts a solo exhibition for a particular artist. Her wardrobe is aglow with unique Chula pieces that reflect the work and themes of her artists and that also reflect the personality of the client. See more examples of Suzanne’s dresses here, here and http://hanoigrapevine.com/2011/02/suzannes-dresses-2/.

Chula’s fame has grown. Each year Chula’s chula garments are a feature at the Vietnam Fashion Week towards the end of April. They have exhibited in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and in Sydney. Of course their Hanoian clients have shown off their own Chula fashion outfits all over the world.

If you love cool houses or cool fashion or both then I recommend a trip to Chula on the far side of the lake. I bet that you fall as coolly in love with it as I have. A warm welcome is assured from the chula people who live and work there.

Read KVT’s first two articles about Suzanne Lecht and Tetsuji Honna.