Creative: Designer Minh Hanh has won a Fukuoka Prize in the category of Arts and Culture for her devotion to regional fashion culture. — Photo courtesy of Fukuoka Prize Committee

HA NOI (VNS) — Designer Minh Hanh has won Japan's Fukuoka Prize in the Arts and Culture category, for her contributions to the development of fashion at home and abroad.

"Based on her deep insight of Vietnamese culture, designer Hanh has created contemporary fashion by fusing the ao dai (traditional dress) and time-honoured embroidery and fabrics inherited by ethnic groups," said Atsuhito Sadakari, vice-chair of the Fukuoka Prize Committee, in Ha Noi yesterday.

"As a leading fashion designer in Viet Nam, she has also organised many fashion shows around the world and nurtured young designers and the fashion market in Viet Nam. Her contributions to the development of fashion here make her worthy of the Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize," he concluded.

Hanh was born in 1961 in the Central Highlands city of Pleiku. After graduating from the HCM City Fine Arts College she became a professional fashion designer. She's well-known for her creative fashion designs that have won her international awards.

The Fukuoka Prize was established in 1990 to honour outstanding achievements by individuals or organisations in preserving and creating the unique and diverse cultures of Asia.

Annually, the prize committee grants a Grand Prize, Academic Prize and Arts and Culture Prize.

The aim is to foster and increase awareness of the value of Asian cultures as well as to establish a framework within which Asians can learn and share with each other.

This year, the Grand Prize has been awarded to Thant Myint-U from Myanmar and Ramachandra Guha from India.

The ceremony will take place on September 17 at the Fukuoka International Congress Centre, after which the winners will give lectures at schools and universities in Fukuoka.

On the occasion, Hanh will deliver a lecture on creativity in Asia discovered through fashion expressed through her designs. — VNS