Smiling Vietnam: A Journey Into Craft, Care, and the Hands That Create
Returning to Vietnam is always emotional for me, but this recent trip felt especially meaningful. It was not just a homecoming. It was a journey back to the hands, stories, and quiet strength that define everything we do at Pham Lifestyles.
This time, I traveled across Vietnam visiting our partner factories, from textile and knitting workshops to rattan and wicker studios. Each stop reminded me that fashion and home goods are not just products. They are expressions of patience, resilience, and love, most often carried by Vietnamese women.
Craftsmanship you can feel
In the knitting workshops, I watched women sit together, hands moving rhythmically, creating beauty stitch by stitch. Many of the small, knitted pieces take six to nine hours to complete. Larger items, such as bags, garments, or statement pieces, often take three to five full days of focused work. Every loop of yarn reflects skill built over years, sometimes decades.
What moved me most was how these pieces, so intricate and full of care, are often sold at very low prices. Not because they lack value, but because handmade labor is too often undervalued in global markets. Yet when you hold one of these pieces in your hands, you can feel the time, the concentration, and the quiet pride embedded in every detail.
Beyond knitting, I visited rattan and wicker factories where furniture is shaped entirely by hand. From baskets and lamps to chairs and tables, the process is slow and deliberate. Natural materials are bent, woven, dried, and refined through techniques passed down through generations. Many of the women I met learned these skills from their mothers or grandmothers, just as I learned sewing at home growing up.
Returning to Khánh Hòa after the floods
During this trip, my heart was especially heavy as I returned to my hometown in Khánh Hòa province. In November 2025, historic floods swept through the region, destroying homes, workshops, farmland, and entire livelihoods. Water rose quickly, taking with it years of hard work in just a matter of hours. Many families lost everything, including the tools they depend on to earn a living.
In the days that followed, we did not stand on the sidelines. At Pham Lifestyles, we worked directly to support our local community and our long-time business partners. From emergency assistance to ensuring continued orders and fair pay, our priority was stability. For artisans and factory workers, steady work during moments of crisis is not just income. It is dignity, security, and hope.
What struck me most was not only the scale of destruction, but the quiet determination that followed. Women returned to clean mud from their homes. Artisans searched for salvaged tools. Families rebuilt piece by piece, just as they always have. This is the reality behind the beautiful handmade products the world enjoys. These creations come from places where life is fragile, but spirit is unbreakable.
“Smiling Vietnam”
Despite long hours, physical labor, and natural disasters that test endurance beyond measure, what stayed with me was their warmth. The smiles. The gentle laughter. The way they welcomed me as family. This is the Vietnam I know and love. Resilient, hardworking, skilled, and always smiling. I often call it “Smiling Vietnam,” not because life is easy, but because strength here is carried with grace.
Vietnamese women have always held families, communities, and industries together through their hands. Whether sewing, knitting, weaving, or crafting furniture, their work is both art and survival. It is precise, disciplined, and deeply human.
What this means for how we work
At Pham Lifestyles, sustainability is not a trend for us. It is a responsibility. Fair pay, ethical partnerships, and long-term relationships matter most during difficult times, when communities need consistency and care the most.
Every bag, garment, or furniture piece we bring to the global market carries more than design. It carries stories of patience, care, and resilience. Our role is to protect those stories, not erase them.
This trip reminded me why I started this journey in the first place. To bring the fine art of Vietnamese women to the world. To honor handmade craftsmanship in an age of mass production. And to stand with the communities behind these creations, not only in moments of celebration, but also in times of hardship.
Here at Pham Lifestyles, craftsmanship is culture, and women’s hands are at the center of everything we do.
Ngoc Cindy Pham
CEO & Co-Founder
