Vietnam For Kids: Shopping in Saigon

While in Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) I walked around expecting another “big city” one that had little to no soul. I was pleasantly surprised by the funky feel of District 1, a mixed district of hotels, offices and art galleries next door to trinket stores, high end designers meet local designers, trashy tourist tschoskys and hand made goods.



While walking around the city I ended up at a store I read about in Travel and Leisure Magazine called L’Usine. L’Usine is an art gallery, coffee shop and kick butt cool concept store set in an industrial style space. The store was chock a block with stuff for mom (I picked up a great scarf and shirt there) as well as for dad. The kids section has great clothing from fun companies like Munster Kids, Paper Wings and Rittenhouse and how about these super cute dolls from Zubels?

















Images from L'Usine's Blog












The store was all decked out for the holidays while I was there and all of the decorations were just amazing. My pictures of the shop did no justice, so I have pulled these from the L’Usine blog. To get to L’Usine, walk down the “Art Alley” off of Dong Khoi Street and head to the stairs to get to the first floor.



The second shop that I fell in love with was Nagu, which means to ease one’s mind or subside in Japanese, and features Japanese inspired handmade clothing and gift items. Most of the clothing at Nagu is for younger children (infant to toddler) but a few pieces could probably be stretched to fit a smallish 5-6 year old.





None of my bear pictures turned out so this is from Travel and Leisure SEA










Nagu has two stores in Saigon, one at the Continental Hotel which does have some adult clothing and the most adorable Vietnam Bears. The second branch is located just up the road and the upscale mall Vincom Centre. There is also a store in Hanoi, but I missed it when I was there.



Nagu has seriously cute stuff, handmade, natural fibers, super fun. I only wish my kids were the right size to be able to wear these clothes or that my pear shaped frame would suit the Japanese style clothing. But this time I walked away with only pictures and a great place to visit again on my next trip to Vietnam.