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A shopping extravaganza in Saigon


"Saigon is a shopping mecca!" I didn't realize how true that was until I was forced to launch into a shopping frenzy three hours before a wedding, where I was supposed to be entertaining the guests in the growing cosmopolitan city of Saigon recently. "Saigon! Saigon!" many a US-Vietnam war veteran has cried. "Ms. Saigon!" my friends used to call me way back in 2008 when I moved to Saigon -- or what is now known as Ho Chi Minh City. Yet these days, very few Saigonese call Saigon by its official name. They prefer its old name, Saigon -- evoking memories of colonial days, of US occupation during the Vietnam War, of the survival of most people who chose to stay behind in this fascinating and fast industrializing city. Going back to my dilemma of heart-stopping proportions, I only learned in the morning of my much-awaited event that I was supposed to shop for an outfit worthy of walking the Oscars Red Carpet event. "Zounds!" I said to myself. My figure is a challenge to most spur-of-the-moment shopping, and even in Saigon where people can sometimes be as buxomy as I am, I have difficulty finding a dress that fits my voluptuous figure. Fortunately, there are clothes boutiques catering to expats and foreign tourists along Dong Khoi Street, in the middle of the shopping district of Saigon. Dong Khoi Street is comparable to the Golden Mile of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. It is actually a very long street, starting at the intersection where Parkson Shopping Mall is located, and going all the way down five to six blocks until it hits another road leading to the Saigon River. Dong Khoi Street is where you will find the Saigon Opera House, the Hotel Caravelle, and the Sheraton Hotel. Both sides of the street are lined with shops selling small souvenirs, clothes. and jewelry.

Outfits in an instant. Aside from its array of flowery dresses, this chic little shop along Mac Thi Boui can stitch together a dress for you within hours.
My first stop was at the boutique store called Mauve which has an interesting shop front displaying printed and flowery dresses and accessories, almost like a spritz in the hot and humid summer. You can easily miss Mauve among the rows of similar clothes and souvenir boutiques on Mac Thi Boui if not for the Japanese characters plastered over its glass shop front, and the gaggle of Japanese-speaking girls going in and out of its door every so often. The owner of Mauve is a Japanese lady, which explains why it seems to have a sizable clientele of young and middle-aged Japanese women as well as the occasional odd-looking, dark-suited Japanese guy buying a dress for his wife, girlfriend or mistress. Among the array of flowery dresses on display, there is the occasional cocktail dress and the quintessential little black dress for an evening out. I chose a blue-black number with a drop waist and fake rhinestones circling its collar. But the waistline was a bit tight so Mauve set off to repair it -- in a matter of an hour or two! Mauve is actually a bespoke tailoring shop, as indicated by the bundles of fabric on one side of the shop. Within a day or two, depending on whether it’s the high or low season for tourists, they can whip up a dress or suit for any client. All you have to do is choose the fabric and the design from the catalogs they have at the store - or provide your own. Fortunately for me, I found my red carpet dress and needed only to have an alteration for an hour or so. The price might be a little bit steep for some (about US$52-57 for a dress, about US$60-80 for a suit), but the workmanship is almost impeccable and the service is fast. Jackpot at Lucky Plaza A few days before I chose my red carpet dress, I stumbled upon a real gem of a find on Dong Khoi Street. I had never imagined that such an establishment could exist in an upmarket part of town. At the very end of Dong Khoi Street, there is an unimposing three-storey building called "Lucky Plaza." It’s one of those buildings that has an air of drabness -- whitewashed walls, glass windows looking out into the street displaying backpacks still wrapped in plastic bags. On the first floor, there are the usual odds and ends of touristy paraphernalia - lacquer boxes, the typical Vietnamese wooden doll wearing an aoi dai, some silk bags and cushions. It’s your average-looking warehouse-cum-shopping mall, similar to its namesake in Orchard Road in Singapore. But that is where the fun begins!
Designer heaven. This unassuming three-storey building holds items from almost every designer you can imagine at a fraction of the price.
A Vietnamese colleague had told me that one day, she went up the second floor of this mall on the recommendation of a friend and found lots and lots of designer jeans and clothes. In my mind, I thought it was one of those places where the locals source some of their designer-inspired clothes – copycats, I figured. So I never checked the place out - until now! Out of boredom because I had to wait for my dress's alterations, I climbed up the second floor, and lo and behold! There were stalls and stalls of clothes - export overruns and quality control rejects of every mass-based and designer foreign brands you can think of. So this is where they got those beautiful Gap, MNG, Zara, Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. dresses they sell in those flea markets in Makati and Greenhills! I hit the jackpot! With Michael Kors blouses averaging from US$3 to US$5, skirts priced at US$5 to US$8, and Banana Republic and Zara dresses costing only a measly US$10, shopping here was definitely a steal! Why didn't I find this place before, I wonder? I could have had a little black dress from Zara or Banana Republic fit for my red carpet event for only US$10.50 or less!
Racks of steals. If you know where to look, you can bag a fab blouse for a measly $5 or score a trendy skirt for $8.
As my colleague told me, you just have to go over to the farthest corner of the 2nd level of the shopping mall to see a few, characterless stalls selling the real deal MNG and other brand name coats and jackets. They’re a little pricier than my Zara dress, but you can bargain with the shop owners. The more items you buy from one stall, the more inclined the shopkeeper will be to give you discounts per item you buy. Bangles and cosmetics Okay now, so I’ve taken care of the dress already, now on for the accessories and cosmetics! It's really so convenient that most of the shops where you can buy drop-dead accessories are located on the streets branching from Dong Khoi street. Parallel to Mac Thi Buoi where Mauve my clothes boutique store is located, there’s Dong Du Street where my favorite trinket store ACESSORIZE can be found. If you're not much of a wallflower and are into large bangles and rings, dangling earrings and bohemian- or eclectic-looking bags, then Accessorize is for you. I find it unusual that this nondescript store towards the end of Dong Du Street is stocked with a large array of gorgeous costume jewelry. There’s quite a number of accessory stores along Dong Khoi to warble in, but I chose Acessorize because I was aware of its high quality merchandise. I picked out a pair of chandelier earrings with fake diamonds to complement my dress - then walked back to Mac Thi Buoi to the newly-opened store of The Body Shop. Yes folks, the Body Shop has opened a stand-alone store in Saigon. Launched in the last quarter of 2009, The Body Shop store in Saigon stocks a fairly good range of cosmetics – skin care, hair care, body care. It also has a wide variety of eye make-up. I selected a medium-color pressed powder to tone down the oiliness of my T-zone. World-class shoes Having gotten all those things, there was only one thing I needed - a pair of fabulous shoes! I badly needed twinkly, patent leather shoes with fake rhinestone diamond accents to complement my blue-black dress. Knowing the little time I had left before the wedding reception in the evening, I hopped onto a xeom - a motorbike taxi. With a little bit of bargaining with some help from my pidgin Vietnamese, I managed to convince the aging driver to take me to the famous shoe shopping street in Saigon -- Ly Chinh Thang Street!
Shoe street. If you're looking for large-sized shoes with designer labels to boot, this is the place to go.
I remembered the day I was moseying around a little side street near Saigon's famous Benh Than Market, where I was overhead by a Causasian lady lamenting the lack of large-sized shoes in Saigon to a shoe seller. She told me, "You'd be lucky to find shoes bigger than size 8 here." She had been living in Saigon for years, and always had difficulty finding large-size shoes. I told her, "Lady, we can't find them here near Benh Than Market. This is tourist country. But obviously, you haven't heard about Ly Chinh Thang Street?" If Nguyen Trang Street in Saigon boasts of world-class designer shoe brand names -- Charles & Keith, Nine West, VNC, etc. -- Ly Chinh Thang Street also sells a great number of world-class designer shoe brands, at 20%-35% of your original designer price! At first glance, when you get to Ly Chinh Thang, you’ll see a row of nondescript shoe stores beside a perpetually dusty street with open shop fronts and signs that look like they'll be falling on you anytime. Ly Chinh Thang Street is a very long street, but the shoe stalls occupy only about two to three blocks.
Designers and Grade As. You'll find a mix of designer shoes and Grade A fakes on these shelves but they're all as good as the real thing.
Entering a shoe store -- more of a stall actually – you will see shelves and shelves of shoes. Some are still in plastic bags, most of them haphazardly placed on the shelves and gathering dust everyday. But look carefully again at the shoes. The material of the shoes are real, supple, high quality leather. And the sizes are from a size 4 to a size 10-12, American or UK size. Most of the shoes are export over-runs. They are usually brands and designs that are still featured in the latest spring-summer fashion mag you picked up from the newsstand. Undoubtedly, there are also many "Grade A fakes" (as we call them in Thailand). Some may be from China, but despite being "designer-inspired" the leather used for these shoes is as good as the real thing. And the price is relatively cheap -- ranging from US$6 to US$9 for a pair of leather high-heel sandals or dress pumps, and just US$15 for real leather boots! It is advised to take at least some time to nosey through all the stalls in that long street. But during my frenzied shopping, after I managed to find my sparkly shoes I hightailed off out of there. After all, I can always take the next opportunity to have another shopping spree in Saigon. – YA, GMANews.TV RELATED STORY
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