A Clean Slate

Fashion label subtle le nguyen, known for fusing traditional vietnamese craftsmanship with contemporary womenswear silhouettes, kicks off 2024 with a new direction

- JAMIE LEE

Change is scary - especially when dealing with the unknown. Yet, change can also be an opportunity to grow and try something different. This is certainly the case for Vietnamese fashion brand Subtle Le Nguyen, which was launched by co-founders Viet Nhat Nguyen and Le Thuy Giang in 2015 as Subtle & Simple, to pay homage to Vietnamese craftsmanship.

Nguyen was raised in Hanoi, where he was often considered the "odd one out" due to his unusual sense of style. "People wore skinny jeans to school [while] gravitated towards baggy and looser cuts," he recalls. "And I got bullied for it. I didn't care though - I just wanted to wear what I wanted." The designer initially dreamed of being a music producer, but he eventually turned to fashion due to his fascination with textiles and patterns.

While in university in the early 2010s, Nguyen met Giang through mutual friends as they both shared an interest in fashion and beauty. At that time, modern yet affordable fashion brands in Vietnam didn't really exist. "It was either very high-end luxury or mass market [brands] in Vietnam," explains Nguyen. Seeing a gap there, the pair decided to start their own fashion brand, calling it Subtle & Simple. "I just felt the urge to create something that fused traditional ways of garment-making with new techniques something that wasn't done at the time,"