Soft blue silk for the morning she starts somewhere new.
A dragon of grace, worn close.
Picture her crossing the lobby on the morning her new chapter begins, a blue silk head scarf tied back or a small knot at the collar of her camel coat, the dragons catching the light each time the doors open. Blue asks nothing of a wardrobe: it sits beside navy, denim, gray, camel and white with the same easy calm, so it becomes the square she reaches for without a second thought.
A 26-inch square of mulberry silk, printed by hand with a Ly Dynasty dragon redrawn from eleventh-century stonework in Hanoi, at sixteen momme. We print this colorway in one size, and this is it.
16 Momme
5A Grade
2 Sides printed
We pay the import duty, not you.
Nothing owed on arrival, nothing added at checkout. Shipping is $20, free from $90. Sent from Hanoi, most US orders land in 9 to 15 business days.
What blue is lovely with
Denim Blue on blue looks deliberate and relaxed at once, tone resting on tone, the pairing that does the most with the least.
Navy and charcoal Where it shines at the office: close enough to belong, different enough to be noticed, and always polished.
Camel, tan, oatmeal A blue square at the neck of a camel coat completes the outfit, season after season.
A white shirt Crisp, calm and quietly elegant, the look of a woman who always seems put together.
Blue is the most wearable ground we print this dragon on, the one that blends gracefully into her day. If she would love to be asked about it across the room, Red carries the same dragon with a bolder voice.
Same size, other colorways: Dark Green · Red · Turquoise · Yellow
What you discover in the hand
Lift it from the tissue and the silk slides over your fingers, heavier and smoother than a screen can show. It is a protein fiber spun by the Bombyx mori silkworm, and each cocoon is wound from one continuous filament that runs for hundreds of yards.
Then the pattern shows its gift. Here the dragon is drawn small and repeated in symmetry across the field, so there is no single picture for a knot to divide: roll it into a band and dragons still run its whole length, which is why this motif folds so quietly at a size that spends most of its life folded.
At sixteen momme the cloth falls in one piece and settles where you place it, and a knot holds through a commute, a meeting and a dinner without a single adjustment.
Details you will notice every day
01
Body enough to hold a knot There is real weight in the cloth, so a knot settles and locks and stays exactly where she tied it all day.
02
Hair, neck, bag and wrist One square does the work of four accessories, with no clasp, ring or hardware and nothing that ties it to a single outfit.
03
Blue on both faces A blue ground shows its reverse at every fold, so both faces here carry the same ink at the same depth, and each fold looks as considered as the open square.
See and test it yourself
Every box holds a cutting from the same bolt as your square, so the burn test below can be done on that little piece and the scarf stays perfect.
|
Mulberry silk |
Polyester |
| Held to a flame |
Burns |
Melts |
| The smell |
Like burning hair |
Acrid, like plastic |
| What is left |
Soft ash that crushes between your fingers |
Hard bead, sticks |
If you try it: over a sink, clear of anything that can catch, not with children in the room. A corner is enough. It is a home check, not lab proof.
Rather not hold a flame to anything? The silk is tested at the Textile Testing Center, part of the Vietnam Textile Research Institute. Outside lab, outside paperwork.
Add to bag and check it yourself →
What $97 buys
The $18 one is polyester. It may resemble this in a photograph, and the burn test above tells the two fibers apart at once.
Every step is done by hand. Rolling and stitching the hem takes close to an hour, and because both faces are printed, the silk passes through the press twice. The dragons are drawn out of the archive by an artist in our studio, and the whole square is made in our own atelier in Hanoi and sent directly to you, which is how it comes to $97. Worn once a week for five years, it comes to under forty cents a wear.
What size silk scarf should I buy?
| 22 in |
Not printed in this colorway |
| 26 in |
Headband, ponytail, neck knot this one
|
| 36 in |
Not printed in this colorway |
| 44 in |
Not printed in this colorway |
Blue runs in one size only. If you need a head wrap, a sleep wrap or a shoulder wrap, the colorway that runs the full range and behaves most like this one is Dark Green - same dragon, same quiet, printed from 22 to 44 inches.
Which motif should I be looking at?
Each of our motifs carries its own wish; choose by the person and the moment.
Buying for an achievement A promotion, a milestone, a leader, a corporate gift: for achievement, choose a dragon, and you are already looking at one of our two. This one draws the Ly Dynasty creature small and repeats it in center symmetry, a finely worked surface. Dragon Dreams draws it large, four dragons at the corners turning toward a bodhi leaf, like a single painting, in a navy deeper than this blue.
Buying for a person A mother, a new chapter, a recovery, a woman you admire for who she is: Phoenix Dance, the empress's bird beside the dragon's emperor, drawn from peacock and pheasant and printed in the soft pastels its meaning asks for.
Buying for a couple A wedding or an anniversary calls for the mandarin ducks, a pair made to celebrate two.
“I love these, but I would never know how to tie one”
Nothing here calls for skill: no pins, no rings, nothing to memorize. At a mirror, she will have each of these four in less than a minute.
The headband Fold it corner to corner, roll it into a band and tie it at the nape, the tails tucked neatly away.
The ponytail wrap Wind it twice around the elastic, knot it on top and let the blue ends fall.
The neck knot Fold, roll and wrap it once, then slide a loose knot off center; over a white shirt it becomes the whole outfit.
The bag roll Roll it narrow and wind it up the handle to a small bow, its resting place on the days it is not at her neck.
In the box, the illustrated guide shows more than twenty ways to tie it, step by step.
Using it as a sleep wrap
For shorter or finer hair this 26-inch square wraps comfortably for the night. For long, thick or tightly coiled hair a 36-inch square gives more cloth, and since blue comes in one size, choose Dark Green at 36 inches; our guide to which size to choose explains the difference.
Giving it as a gift
With a gift, the worry is taste, and blue sets that worry aside. It is the kind choice to send to someone whose wardrobe you have never seen.
It also gives her a lovely story. When someone admires it, she can say: it is a Ly Dynasty dragon, and the dragon is holding a pearl out, offering it.
When you are unsure of her taste Blue settles into any wardrobe it arrives in, and the dragon gives the gift a meaning beyond its beauty.
For a graduation, or a new job It walks with her into the interview and the new office, and she will think of the giver each time she reaches for it.
For a mother She has spent twenty years asking you not to spend money on her, which is why this will touch her: something she would never buy herself, already boxed, from a place she will want to hear about. Should she be more phoenix than dragon, Phoenix Dance will suit her beautifully.
For a promotion or a milestone Blue says it softly; Red carries the same dragon and says it with celebration.
The dragon who offers the pearl
The imperial citadel at the center of Hanoi, Hoang Thanh Thang Long, was begun in 1010, and the dragons in its stone are gentle beings. Ly Dynasty dragons have no scales; the body tapers to the tail in a soft curve like moving water, with three talons, a raised head and a long mane, a pearl held at the mouth and a crest of flame lifting from the nose. On the forehead sits an S mark, the old character for thunder, and together they speak of rain, rivers and a harvest that comes in.
The pearl is the heart of it. In the Lotus Sutra the dragon girl offers her pearl, so this is a dragon who gives, and that is the meaning of its name: An is grace granted, strength offered with kindness.
May Hoa Long An draws that creature small and repeats it in symmetry around a center, each dragon offering a bodhi leaf inward, with carved borders and a lotus pedestal between them. Our studio redraws every motif by hand from archive photographs, then prints it in Hanoi screen by screen, and our guide to what the Dragon of Grace motif means tells the rest.
A square this size carries a portion of that field, as every size below the largest does: a graceful section of the composition, drawn at full scale.
The box, the care, and the returns
In the box A rigid gift box and matching bag · the square folded in tissue · a story card naming the motif and its dynasty · an illustrated styling guide · a care card · the silk cutting. Nothing left for you to wrap. Sending it straight to her? We write your note by hand and keep the price out of the parcel.
Washing Easier than people fear, and less often. Silk sheds dust on its own, so every three to five wears is plenty. Cold water, shampoo or body wash rather than laundry detergent. Squeeze, never wring. Dry in shade, never in sun. Iron on the lowest silk setting while still faintly damp. Blue grounds hold their depth for years treated this way.
Returns Thirty days from delivery, unused and unwashed, in the original box. If the fault is ours, a flaw in the silk, a print error, a seam that failed, postage goes both ways on us and you get a replacement or a full refund. Changed your mind? Thirty days, return postage yours, and if you take store credit instead of a refund we add fifteen percent. One condition: it comes back unused, unwashed and unworn, in its original box.
Specifications
| Material |
100% Grade 5A mulberry silk |
| Color |
Blue |
| Motif |
May Hoa Long An · Dragon of Grace · Ly Dynasty |
| Layout |
Center-symmetric repeat |
| Weight |
16 momme |
| Size |
26 × 26 in · 65 × 65 cm |
| Print |
Hand screen-printed, double-sided |
| Edges |
Hand-rolled, hand-stitched |
| Testing |
Textile Testing Center, Vietnam Textile Research Institute |
| Made in |
Hanoi, Vietnam |
One square of blue silk,
and a dragon that gives.
Mulberry silk in soft blue at sixteen momme, both faces printed and every edge finished by hand in Hanoi. It arrives gift boxed with a cutting you are welcome to set on fire.
Add to bag · $97
Free US shipping from $90 No customs fees 30-day returns
