Clothing has always served to represent one’s personality, and with customisation services taking fashion lovers by storm, it has been a trend to get yourself a customised, one-of-a-kind outfit item.

Customisation means adding your identity to things you own, and that is indeed what makes this indescribably appealing to many. 

Over the years the trend has gone beyond clothing, with people adding personal twists to their phones, bags, laptops, and basically any personal item. 

ARTY.DIIY is among the first few businesses to hop on this bandwagon. Located in Thủ Đức City’s Hoàng Diệu 2 Street (in Hồ Chí Minh City), this customisation store has a bright green neon sign and flashy banners. 

It offers customisation of a variety of items, from T-shirts and hoodies and phone cases to pet apparel, keychains, and even keyboards.

It has a wide variety of colourful stickers, embroidered patches, charms, and various decorative elements.

Nguyễn Thị Phương Anh, a spokesperson of ARTY.DIIY, says what makes her business different from workshops is that they do not sell in combos or packages, meaning prices are counted based on the number of items chosen.

“The prices here range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese đồng, and so everyone can afford to have their items customised.”

A customisation process at ARTY.DIIY is surprisingly simple.

Customers will start by choosing a base item, a T-shirt for example, and select as many decorations as they like. 

A staff member then helps them arrange them on the shirt, do the markings and sew or print each decoration depending on its material. 

The final product is usually ready in just 15 minutes, and home delivery is also available.

Anh says the store gets a wide variety of customers, such as students, couples looking for matching outfits, families, and even companies.

People find this business model interesting because they can express themselves, be creative, and bring personality to an item at affordable prices, she says.

“Children also love to do this as they get to choose cute stickers and make their own clothes.”

Nguyễn Huỳnh Bích Phương, who visited the place after seeing an advertisement on Facebook, says she is "impressed with the service and how attentive the staff are". 

“This place allows me to express my creativity, and the customised product really shows people who I am.

“I’m the only one who can have this shirt, and you just can’t find an identical one anywhere else.”

Nguyễn Thị Kim Hằng, 19, says what she likes most about the experience is that she can give vent to her creativity and choose stickers she likes.

“Wearing my self-made T-shirt helps me express my personality. They are much prettier than those I buy from other places.” 

Besides clothing, phone cases and keycaps are also popular items for decoration.

“Unlike T-shirts with the decorations permanently attached, our phone case design makes it convenient for customers to change them whenever they want without ruining the item.”

For keyboards, the store offers a whole set of keycaps and charms to stick on each of them. Depending on the number of charms and model, a customised keyboard can cost up to VNĐ3.5 million (US$140).

ARTY.DIIY is trialling a keychain customisation service, and there will be workshops for children to make keychains and squeezable toys in the near future.

“As this is quite new to the public, we will have more promotional events and campaigns to popularise it,” Anh says.  VNS