Learning Indochic

I did not know the term Indochic until reading this essay. “Indochic” in postcolonial Vietnam refers to the revival and popularization of French colonial aesthetics in modern Vietnamese architecture, interior design, fashion, and branding. This visual style invokes nostalgia for the colonial past, attracting tourists and affluent locals with imagery of old villas, antique furnishings, and a romanticized hybrid of French and Vietnamese culture. Businesses, especially boutique hotels, cafes, and lifestyle brands, capitalize on Indochic’s allure to offer luxurious, Instagram-ready experiences that evoke sophistication and elegance.

However, this fascination is controversial; critics argue that Indochic perpetuates selective memory and glosses over painful colonial legacies like exploitation and social inequality. By commodifying symbols and motifs from French Indochina, Indochic can obscure historical trauma and contribute to a sanitized narrative of colonial history, sanitized for commercial and aesthetic purposes. These concerns are amplified in discussions on Vietnamese identity, as the style sometimes displaces indigenous values and architectural forms in favor of those seen as “cosmopolitan” or “elite”.

The article concludes that Indochic, while visually appealing and marketable, remains a double-edged cultural phenomenon in Vietnam. Its popularity highlights ongoing tensions between national memory and commodification, where celebrating the colonial past for style and profit risks diminishing complex histories and ongoing struggles for genuine postcolonial expression. The challenge will be for Vietnamese creatives and consumers to engage with Indochic thoughtfully, acknowledging its beauty while critically examining the stories and legacies it represents.

As someone who comes from a once colonized country, it would be more satisfying to see the Vietnamese elite and creative class that finds inspiration in pre-colonial, revolutionary, and contemporary Asian sources rather than French or "Indochic" motifs. High-end cafes, hotels, and fashion brands would market themselves as modern, Vietnamese, and globally connected but with deep local roots—using native materials, traditional crafts, and contemporary forms—rather than romanticizing colonial history for commercial gains. This counterfactual vision would frame the relationship with the colonial past as one of critique and transformation, not nostalgia or elegance