-^-for posterity-^-

if traditional girls wear ao dai, modern girls wear bucket hats, long gloves and shoes that are at least two inches high.

the bucket hat tradition stems from the desire for white skin. there is a longing here, a passionate longing to look white. some would say pale. my arms are clearly darker than most of the women here. the girls in class do everything in their power to block out the tanning potential of the sun.

their first defense against the sun is obviously the outer layer of their clothes. if it were not for that they would all be naked just as we would.

moving on, the next defense is a bucket hat. a bucket hat is a hat that is surrounded with a brim. it is usually made of some sort of cotton blend and is always pastel, white or some terrible shade of peach. the bucket hats usually have some sort of phrase or picture embroidered on them. some say, "i love you", which is truly misleading. the girls love you no more than they love dark skin. some hats simply have some sort of fruit or flower embroidered on them. sometimes it's a strawberry or a cherry. most of the hats are uniformly one color but some have a neat little trim around the edge of the brim. the had is worn low over the eyes to minimize the effects of the sun.

the next layer of defense are the gloves that stretch from the tips of the fingers all the way up to the ends of their short-sleeved shirts. gloves that would look elegant if worn by someone in the ninteen fifties but look terribly trashy when worn by the girls here. they can be skin colored but are normally a strange shade of dark brown or purple. if a girl happens to be wearing a pair of purple gloves and a peach bucket hat, i'm forced to look elsewhere. ugh.

the last defense against the sun is the face mask which is nothing more than a triangular piece of cloth, usually with some floral print, strapped behind the bucket hat. this is normally used for driving. the idea is this: the sun will not darken the face while out in the most severe conditions and the dust from the road will not be able to permeate the thin, cotton mask. they all look like bandits when they drive around on their motorcycles and must be terribly uncomfortable.

somehow they can distinguish each other too. they pass each other, wave and yell friendly greetings. somehow they must recognize the bucket hats, masks or arm-length gloves. "oh, phuong has the purple gloves with the cream colored bucket hat with the cherry on it and the light colored gloves." i assume it goes something like that.

the final accessory required of most vietnamese women is the shoe. the shoes worn by most women are large, tall and look unbearably uncomfortable. some are two inches tall. some are taller. they make walking impossible and work difficult. i can't believe what the women go through here to look "beautiful".

however, bucket hats are by far the worst.