The 90’s DIY - Capturing Everyday Charm Into Handmade DIY Miniatures

Handmade miniatures, capturing the charm of everyday street scenes of Vietnam, will infuse life into your living spaces. These miniatures are not just adorable; they're a testament to the heart of The 90's DIY, a brand that unites culture enthusiasts who love crafting tiny things and offer DIY models for you to work on. Join CHUS to discover more about the story of this brand in this Talk with Chus blog.

1. What's the story behind The 90's DIY?

The 90’s DIY is founded by young people born in the '90s. We are the architects, the marketers, the handmade artists, the DIY enthusiasts, and we are all of you. While not all members share a passion for DIY, we believe that everyone can become a DIYer in their own life.

We are the leading generation with a passion and dream of a miniature world. We view the present as a gift and, through our creations, we capture moments. This enhances our life experiences and the pursuit of happiness. We believe that modern life is becoming increasingly hectic, burdened with stress, depression, and frustration. Encouraging people to embrace contemporary hobbies can make life more enjoyable and add that 'wow' factor.

We design DIY miniatures as a source of nostalgia and entertainment for young people. These miniatures transport us halfway back to cherished memories connected to various landscapes. Creating and preserving these scenes creates keepsakes that bring happiness to our lives.

Our miniatures are proudly made in Vietnam, for Vietnam, crafted with love.

2. Can you tell us some unforgettable memories with DIY?

Chau Tran, the co-founder of The 90's DIY, has a strong passion for DIY in general and miniatures in particular. With a background in architecture, she has had the opportunity to work with various types of miniatures in the architectural field. She cherishes the art of creating miniatures. Did you know that many architectural projects begin with a draft or a miniature model? She began discussing the idea of incorporating miniatures into everyday life, aiming to make them more common and popular.

Later, Chau discussed with Nhut and Anne (the other two co-founders) to come up with the right idea and officially start the business. Chau is the heart, the artist and the passion keeper of the business while Anne and Nhut are more about the brain, the medium and contemporary player. We all believe that if you want to deliver something to everyone, you must understand the depth of your love and passion for it. Passion is where it all begins.

It was very challenging at the beginning as we were struggling with the cost of material and a bit fear of losing the appreciation from the market. Anne said, 'Trust in what we are doing, and we will be fine.' Over time, we 'connected' with our market, including other DIYers. People began to appreciate our artwork, they tried and we improved our business formula day by day from the customer’s feedback. We need to learn the flexibility between the mind of an artist and the head of the commercial maker.

We design for people to play, so it's essential to measure customer happiness and their emotions. Our customers appreciate the artwork and enjoy creating miniatures. We've gained some loyal customers, and some of them have become artists within our team. In addition to receiving praise for our products, we've also learned about the contributions made at each stage of the journey, from delivering miniature products from the warehouse to the customer's hands.

Our product development philosophy is guided by three main key factors, which also serve as our unique selling points:

• True-to-Life Factor: The majority of our miniatures are designed on a 1/35 scale, smaller than their real-life counterparts. However, we pay close attention to detail, ensuring at least a 90% similarity to reality. In other words, while the size is scaled down, the true-to-life factor is retained as faithfully as possible.
• Practical Factor: We strive to incorporate practicality into each of our miniature products. Our artworks are designed to add value to both physical and mental aspects of life. We emphasize the practical aspects when creating our miniatures.
• Human and Emotional Factor: While our miniatures don't physically contain human figures, they convey the human and emotional aspects through spatial relations. When you look at the Banhmi food cart magnet, you may see a piece of bread; you're glimpsing the story of Banhmi bread and the street-style food culture, and the human is somewhere in that culture. Similarly, when you explore the Hoi An Ancient Town collection, you're immersing yourself in the culture and life of the people depicted in the creation.

3. How many hours or days does it take to complete one miniature artwork?

It will depend on the design and details of the draft and the design. As an intermediate DIYers, you can finish Hue or Dalat in the Traveler Suitcase collection from 1-2 weeks with some leisure time, an estimated 50-56 hours total. Our professional artists can complete the same miniature artwork within or less than a week, estimated 30-35 hours or less.

The concept of the food cart magnet, such as the Fresh Fruit Cart Magnet, requires more focused details and skillful techniques, thus demanding more effort. At this stage, for part 1 of the collection, only our artists can do it and it will take us a week to complete 30-40 magnets. Our product development team initiates all the work with a modest number of artists.

As the concept of The 90’s DIY is to encourage the younger generation with this new contemporary hobby, we are planning to launch part 2 of the food cart magnets with DIY instructions. This will allow our DIYers to enjoy the joy and magic of creating things from start to finish.

4. What is the key message that the founder and the team want to convey with DIY?

DIY is the handmade journey of happy moments. We develop our hand-crafted miniatures as a package that players are eager to assemble, meticulously creating every detail by hand until completion.

We are not the only artists: our customers are also the true artists in their journey to capture daily joy through each DIY miniature.

Have you ever believed that one landscape or item can tell more than hundreds of stories?

They are—DIY miniatures—a cover for your storytelling happiness book.

Much like many other Vietnamese brands, The 90’s DIY's unwavering mission is to infuse each of its products with a genuine Vietnamese essence. This commitment is seamlessly intertwined with the brand's unique core values. We warmly invite you to browse The 90’s DIY's store on CHUS.VN e-commerce platform, where you'll find realistic, meticulously crafted, realistic miniature models as well as DIY kits to cater to your personal tastes and preferences.