International flora expo highlights rising talent of Vietnamese artists

Chairman Mai Hoa (in the middle) at the VIFE 2019 gala night

The expo, a passionate effort headed by VIFE Chairman Mai Hoa, aimed to scale up the flora design business in Vietnam.

VIFE 2019, held March 26-28, was a great success in terms of attracting international and Vietnamese participants as well as the creativity they showcased.

Themed "Window of Love", VIFE 2019, the third edition of the event, saw flora artisans and florists from many countries, including Ahti Lyra (South Estonia), Iza Tkaczyk (Poland), Damien Koh and Harijanto (Singapore), Premysl Hytych (the Czech Republic) and Shelly Huynh (USA). Vietnam’s representative at this year’s event was designer Bao Nam.

VIFE Chairman Hoa highlighted the salient feature of this year’s show: “The products displayed this year show the remarkable progress made by Vietnamese artisans, showing that the gap between them and international flora designers is not wide. This is a good result for us VIFE organizers."

Artisans and designers participating in the expo shared their ideas and messages through works inspired by positive emotions: friendship, love, family affection. All these emotions combined with the diversity of beautiful tropical flowers in Vietnam to create the very impressive works displayed at the expo.

The impressive works of designers and artisans at VIFE 2019

Hoa noted that VIFE 2019 was of a larger scale than previous editions. In addition to exhibitions, the event included a parade of electric Vinfast motorcycles with floral arrangements, workshops on flower design, and fresh flower designs on the traditional Vietnamese attire, the ao dai. Visitors admired the collection of Vietnamese ao dai creatively adorned with many floral designs.

Aiming to create a playground for artisans to learn and exchange notes, and to honor Vietnamese flowers, event organizers held a contest for 11 artists from Vietnam, South Korea and Malaysia. The contestants went through several rounds that required them to design a display space for a retail fashion brand, design a floral arrangement on an ao dai and decorate the eco-friendly Klara electric motorcycles produced by sponsor VinFast with fresh flowers. Three contestants from Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam won awards, and Vietnamese florist Nhut Nguyen was declared champion.

Explaining her motivation in organizing the expo, Hoa said: “As an overseas Vietnamese living in the US with a lot of experience in many international flower design competitions, I saw the wide gap between Vietnam and the world in this industry. So I decided to bring the exhibition to Vietnam for the first time in 2016, so that the young designers can grasp international design standards.

Hoa said she hoped the competition will expand every year and the event will mark continuous growth of the flora design industry in Vietnam. “I hope that this 3rd edition of this expo will create a reputation and resonate with the World Interflora organizers, so that I can bring the world cup to the flower design industry in Vietnam in the next 4 years.”