The ao dai has always been more common in the South than in the North. The communists, who gained power in the North in 1954 and in the South in the 1975, had conflicted feelings about the ao dai. They praised it as a national costume and one was worn to the Paris Peace Conference (1968–73) by Vietcong negotiator Nguyễn Thị Bình.^[12] Yet Westernized versions of the dress and those associated with "decadent" Saigon of the 1960s and early 1970s were condemned.^[13] Economic crisis, famine, and war with Cambodia combined to make the 1980s a fashion low point.^[6] The ao dai was rarely worn except at weddings and other formal occasions, with the older, looser-fitting style preferred.^[13] Overseas Vietnamese, meanwhile, kept tradition alive with "Miss Ao Dai" pageants (Hoa Hậu Áo Dài), the most notable one held annually in Long Beach, California.^[2]

The ao dai experienced a revival beginning in late 1980s, when state enterprise and schools began adopting the dress as a uniform again.^[2] In 1989, 16,000 Vietnamese attended a Miss Ao Dai Beauty Contest held in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).^[14] When the Miss International Pageant in Tokyo gave its "Best National Costume" award to an ao dai-clad Trường Quỳnh Mai in 1995, Thời Trang Trẻ (New Fashion Magazine) gushed that Vietnam's "national soul" was "once again honored."^[15] An "ao dai craze" followed that lasted for several years and led to wider use of the dress as a school uniform.^[16]