{"id":44221,"date":"2026-06-21T15:17:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/?p=44221"},"modified":"2026-06-21T15:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:35:57","slug":"from-saigon-to-prague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/blog\/from-saigon-to-prague\/","title":{"rendered":"From SaiGon to Prague"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good day, dear clients of #lafemmemimi,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I owe you an explanation of how I ended up in Prague and how I got into fashion\u2026 So here it is \u2014 my friendly and honest \u201cconfession\u201d :-)))))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photo on the left was taken in Hanoi at the moment I was about to leave for the airport. My father took the picture. I was 15 years old. My cousin and my best friends from kindergarten came to say goodbye to me. I flew alone, without anyone accompanying me. I had a layover in Dubai, where all I remember was desert and a little stand selling gold rings and bracelets\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mom was waiting for me at Prague Ruzyn\u011b Airport. Back then, she was about the age I am now \u2014 around 40. My mother had come to Prague alone in 1982, while I stayed in Hanoi with my brother and father. During all those years, she returned home to Hanoi only about three times, so traveling to Prague to see my mom at the age of 15 was a huge, huge challenge for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the photography on the right was taken by my son Lam Peln\u00e1\u0159<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My father came from an intellectual family in Hanoi. His father was a professor of philosophy, and his mother was a housewife. My memory of her is that she was the most beloved grandmother under the sun\u2026 She never forced me to do anything \u2014 she only wanted me to enjoy her cooking and not cry because I missed my mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father was a painter. He created beautiful paintings, and my grandparents supported him in everything he wanted to do. Then came the long war (the Vietnam War lasted from 1945 to 1975), and my father, like many other young people, had to go to war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the bottom left is a rare photograph of my father holding an exhibition in the jungle :-))))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the right is a photograph of my parents with me and their friend, the Hanoi painter Bui Xuan Phai. I love looking at this photo \u2014 everyone was happy there\u2026 On the wall hung an unfinished portrait of little MiMi, which Mr. Bui Xuan Phai had painted as a gift for me, and shortly after this moment my mother left for Prague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You probably don\u2019t often see a photograph like this \u2014 Hanoi painters at the beginning of the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all came from bourgeois families, and then the long, brutal war arrived, while the rest of the world was celebrating the victory and the end of the Second World War\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all young and fragile\u2026 They all had to leave school and go to war against the imperialists. They survived the war, but although they once had everything, after the war they were left with nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had to step into completely new roles in life \u2014 and they managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents were never together very much. After my mother left for Prague, their relationship eventually came to a definitive end. I was raised by my grandmother and grandfather. My father worked as a painter for the government and created various political propaganda paintings. His salary was not enough for us to afford even an egg every morning\u2026 He fell into depression and later became dependent on alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he was always my beloved father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And look at us \u2014 great minds think alike\u2026 I\u2019m wearing a striped T-shirt and my father is wearing a striped shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jak jsem se vyrostla bez maminky, tak v\u017edycky jsem si ji p\u0159edstavovala v hlav\u011b jak\u00e1 je, co dnes m\u00e1 na sob\u011b, rt\u011bnku nos\u00ed ? Jake vlasy ? trvalou m\u00e1 nebo ne\u2026.(m\u011bla a st\u00e1le m\u00e1 trvalou:-). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodn\u011b mi to pomohlo v pr\u00e1ci, po ka\u017ed\u00e9 kdy\u017e pracuji na novou kolekci tak si ud\u011bl\u00e1me hlav\u011b imagin\u00e1rn\u00ed \u017eenu :-).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tady dole je fotka z m\u00f3dn\u00ed p\u0159ehl\u00eddky La Femme MiMi na Designbloku\u2026\u2026imagin\u00e1rn\u00ed \u017deny dle MiMi:-)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My work is deeply connected to the past and to nostalgia\u2026 because that is what I grew up with. You know, when I was a little girl, my grandfather, grandmother, father, uncles, and aunts were constantly telling me stories about what we once had, how we lived, what life was like before the war, and so on\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love femininity (perhaps because I missed having my mother), and when we talk about femininity, periods like Art Nouveau and Art Deco feel incredibly feminine to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My work always returns to those worlds, and they continue to inspire me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I probably won\u2019t be the kind of designer who creates for the future \u2014 I\u2019ll be the one who always takes you back to childhood\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Life in Prague as a teenager in the 1990s was both a lot of fun and very demanding. I went to school from morning until afternoon, worked hard to learn Czech, prepared for university entrance exams, and after school I would go straight to help my mother sell green tea and ceramics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From time to time, I went to concerts and to the club Radost FX\u2026 haha\u2026 back then, if you hadn\u2019t been to Radost, it was almost as if you didn\u2019t exist\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first studio was in Prague 6, where Jaroslava Muchov\u00e1, the daughter of Alfons Mucha, had lived and worked. That space was truly magical! I had five beautiful years of work there, and during Covid we had to let it go and move everything to \u0160t\u011bp\u00e1nsk\u00e1 53, Prague 1, where we are still based today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What feels very close to me in the Czech Republic is the traditional folk costumes, the patterns, and the embroidery\u2026 I feel a connection between the two cultures, and I would say that through folklore, all countries can connect and find a common language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my work, you will find many patterns and details that may feel familiar to you\u2026 as if you had seen them or owned them sometime in the past. That sense of familiarity \u2014 those quiet echoes of memory \u2014 are the signatures of folklore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Life in Prague gives me a new challenge every day, and I let myself be surprised by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am grateful for your loyalty to the La Femme MiMi brand. Keeping a fashion brand and showroom running for almost 20 years in the centre of Prague is no easy task\u2026 It has cost me many tears and plenty of moments of headaches and struggle :-).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the Dalai Lama says:
\u201cIf you approach your work with enthusiasm and kindness, exhaustion disappears and is replaced by inner strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found an old photograph for you showing Ba\u0165a\u2019s first store in Saigon, and I have to say that this historical image inspires me greatly in doing business in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ba\u0165a entered Saigon in 1932, and within seven years had opened 19 stores in Hanoi and 20 in Saigon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1949, Ba\u0165a built a factory in Saigon\u2026 even though the situation in Vietnam was uncertain, they still decided to move forward \u2014 and it turned out to be a successful decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you for your attention \u2014 my \u201cconfession\u201d has come to an end\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you enjoyed it at least a little \ud83d\ude42 I wrote and prepared this letter myself. I didn\u2019t let ChatGPT or anyone else edit it \u2014 this is how I speak Czech, and unfortunately it probably won\u2019t get much better. I simply don\u2019t have the capacity for that :-)))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d rather save my time and energy for creating beautiful clothes for you, women\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MiMi Lan Nguy\u1ec5n Hoang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Good day, dear clients of #lafemmemimi, I owe you an explanation of how I ended…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"44031","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":444,"footnotes":""},"categories":[444,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en-en","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44226,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44221\/revisions\/44226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}