Vietnamese model and fashion designer Ngoc Trinh may be about to face a penalty in her home country for a gown she recently wore in France.
Trinh, 29, who attended the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where she wore an embellished black ‘naked dress‘ with hip-high slits, is facing backlash in Vietnam for the revealing dress. So much so, that according to The Sun, she may have to pay a heavy fine for possibly violating Vietnam’s public decency laws, despite wearing it in another country.
“She is not an artist that the ministry sent to the event. Her outfit was improper, offensive and has caused public outrage,” Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Vietnam’s minister of culture, sports and tourism, reportedly said during a session of the National Assmebly in Hanoi.
As a result, he added, the ministry is now discussing looking at current laws that permit the government to impose fines on those who wear ‘revealing’ or ‘suggestive’ clothing in public.
Trinh has received significant criticism from those in her home country, with many on social media calling the dress “sexually explicit”, “gross” and “weird”. The model-designer, however, is said to be unapologetic about her Cannes ensemble.
“I’ve got a lot of praise for my outfit. I don’t care if people criticise it because I felt pretty in the dress, which made a good impression on the Cannes red carpet,” she reportedly told VNEexpress.
“I cannot satisfy the whole world,” she added.
Although the dress is causing controversy in Vietnam, in Hollywood, this style of dress is nothing new. Kendall Jenner wore a very similar silhouette by Lebanese-American designer Rami Kadi to the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.