In many ways, 2026 has been an enormously transformative year for Very Ngon Homewares. And believe it or not, one of the biggest catalysts started taking shape around 17 years ago.
In 2010, Hieu and I moved into her tiny, tiny house in Go Vap District. It was in this home that Very Ngon Homewares took shape. A seed of an idea was being transformed into our first hand printed tea towels. I screen printed pieces of fabric in our tiny kitchen, throwing them over motorbikes in the yard next door to dry.
In the house opposite us, a mere 1 metre away, lived a mother and her young child with a curious smokey voice. Little did any of us know that one day, this young girl would lose her 7 packs of cigarettes a day voice, study design at a local university and approach us about doing an internship with Very Ngon Homewares.
A Very Ngon Internship Programme is Born:
And just like that, we commenced an internship programme for design-inclined students. Not only that, we were also suddenly gifted a talented young student who has created one of our most popular designs to date – the Year of the Fire Horse. It was like a small, independent business dream come true.
Finding a way to connect with some of the local universities to offer internships was something I had been very keen to do for a number of years. But how to make it through the figurative and literal gates (the guards who won’t let you in without an appointment; inquiry emails sent but never responded to; Hieu with little time to assist me; etc)? As a result, it just got thrown into the all-too-hard basket for a bit. So, when we had a potential intern show up at our door, presenting herself at just the right time, we knew we were very lucky indeed.
A Student with Skill:
Su has shown herself to be a gifted illustrator, as well as a responsive, problem-solving design asset to our team. She has:
- created our latest lunar animal design, the Snake
- assisted me when I went off on a tangent and decided I wanted to create perspex jewelry (not sure if that one will go ahead yet…)
- has almost finished a fabulous bandana design, and
- is working on a totally GORGEOUS fabric print inspired by “something” in Vietnam (yes, I am being deliberately vague) as we speak.
But wait, there’s more!
Recently, we very unexpectedly gained another intern. Em Su and em Mi met through their studies in Graphic Design and Illustration and became good friends. Su introduced Mi to us, who arrived needing a short-term placement. Mi has only been with us for a couple of weeks and she has just about finished her first tea towel design (again, which I will also remain vague about). But rest assured, it also looks AMAZING!
Both Su and Mi will finish their internships with us around the same time in the coming weeks. While we will be sad to see them leave to complete their studies and graduate later in the year, we hope it won’t be the last we see of them here at Very Ngon Homewares.
If you are a design student interested in doing an internship with us, send me (Lise) an email at hello@veryngonhomewares. Make sure to include details of what and where you are currently studying and anything else you think might be of interest.
