Van Phuc Silk Village, Here We Come

Van Phuc silk village

     

     Silk was definitely on my "must buy" list when I came to Vietnam.  The history of silk dates back to the fourth century in China.  According to legend/history, the title of Goddess of Silk was given to Lady Hsi-Ling-Shih, wife of the Yellow Emperor.  She introduced the art of silkworm rearing and the invention of the loom. China protected the secret of this very valuable product for 30 centuries by searching those travelling along the Silk Road for hidden silk worms, eggs, or cocoons on penalty of death! However, now the secret is out and many countries have thriving silk worm farms with Vietnam in the top 10 countries of production and export of silk.

    So, let's start at the beginning.  It all starts with the silkworm. Here- watch the process from silkworm cocoon to fine silk.   This process is called sericulture- which starts with feeding silkworms lots of mulberry leaves.  Silkworms are born of moths.  The silkworms spit out threads to spin cocoons with a minimum of three days for one cocoon and involve about 1,000 individual threads. Look how hard that little silk worm has to work for that cocoon! Building a cocoon The cocoon is then put into boiling water. The boiling water loosens the glue that holds the threads together allowing one to unravel the thread. Now it is time for the next step. That step is dyeing of the threads.  This is an art and science all its own- with several ways to go about it.  Here is one method, Dyeing the silk threads. In Laos we find a more traditional way, Traditional silk dyeing in Laos. Now the cloth must be.  Or it seems you can spin the cloth and then dry.

     Vietnam ranks in the top ten producers and exporters of silk with The Van Phuc village as one of the most famous suppliers.  However, if you think, as I did, that you will find better bargains by going to the village itself rather than buying on Silk Street near Hoan Kiem Lake, you would be wrong.  You will, however, have a much wider variety of silk fabric if you are hoping to have your own item made for you.  If you are like me- a size ten or twelve- you may find that your choices are limited. You have a better chance finding your size on Silk Street since they are used to tourist who are larger than the average Vietnamese.

Trust me- they are even more beautiful in real life

It's no easy thing- shopping

And it takes hours of hard work to produce this beauty.

     Also on the top of the list of producers and sellers is Thailand.  I bring it up because the man credited for bringing Thai silk to international attention was, in fact, the American Jim Thompson. Thompson fell in love with Thailand during World War II and decided to settle there and make the silk industry his business. His business really took off when his silks were praised in Vogue and chosen as the material for the garments in The King and I. He had been an architect in New York City until 1940, and his house, which you can visit in Bangkok, became well known for its innovation and beauty.  Learn more about Jim Thompson and the Thai silk industry by visiting this link: Jim Thompson

     Any blog about silk would be incomplete, however, without the mention of the best known silk garment in Vietnam, the áo dài.  

The áo dài, or long shirt,  was first made for those in the house of the Nguyen Lords in Hue to set them apart from those in the north.  In the 1920s and '30s, it was redesigned showing French influence and in the 1950s it became the more fitted long shirt that we see today.  In the 1960s and 70s the áo dài was very popular in the southern part of the country. Although it was banned by the Communist Party as an example of "capitalist decadence," Nguyen Thi Binh Vietcong representative at the Paris Peace Conference wore the áo dài.  However the garment did not truly regain its place as the symbol of Vietnamese fashion until the 1980s.  Before I leave the topic of the áo dài, I must ell you of a movie that has received international acclaim centered on the garment.  Check out, if you can find it, the movie The White Silk Dress.  review of The White Silk Dress

On that note, I am off to the movies.