National costume design contest: Not finding any standard sample

(Cinet)- On October 29, in Ha Noi, the Arts Council has marked preliminary round after 3 months of launching national costume design contest.

As many as 254 entries sent by 47 competitors failed to satisfy judges. Hence, the organisers will invite additional designers to join the final round.

According to painter Le Anh Van, vice chairman of the contest's Art Council, most of the designs could not meet the contest's requirements on the smartness, comfortability and Vietnamese identity. "In the meantime, some designs look like performing costumes on modern fashion catwalks or bear foreign features," he said, "This is understandable as most of the competitors are amateur designers or fashion students."

Artist Vi Kien Thanh said, "Some judges suggested that 6 entries of three designers make some changes to their designs to qualify them for the final. Even in that case, the contest still needs more qualified designs."

Artist  Tran Khanh Chuong noted that the contest's qualifying round had been widely announced, yet it had not attracted professional designers. "I think the best solution is to invite prestigious designers or big garment companies throughout the nation to join the contest," he said.

Some organising members suggested inviting seven more designers to increase the number of finalists to ten for the next round of the contest.