Deep red silk, wound softly over her hair at dusk.
A silk hair scarf with a lotus at its heart.
Deep red has a quiet richness, and wound over the hair it looks composed from a morning meeting to a late supper. At night the same square becomes a sleep wrap, so one piece of silk keeps her company around the clock.
Sixteen momme mulberry silk in dark red, thirty-six inches square, hemmed by hand on all four sides and printed by hand with a lotus from the stonework of the imperial citadel in Hanoi.
16 Momme
5A Grade
2 Sides printed
We pay the import duty, not you.
Nothing owed on arrival, nothing added at checkout, and at this size shipping is already free. Sent from Hanoi, most US orders land in 9 to 15 business days.
Sending it to someone? Two things before you read any further: it ships from Hanoi, so allow 9 to 15 business days to a US address, and it arrives gift boxed with your note written by hand and no price anywhere in the parcel. Gift ideas follow below, after a few words on wearing it.
Where dark red goes at this size
Overnight, most nights The use this size and this color are both for. Enough cloth to wrap, twist and tuck without a fight at midnight, and dark enough that hair oil does not show between washes.
Wrapped, with black or charcoal Red against black is the oldest reliable pairing there is. At this size it covers the head completely and reads as intent rather than as weather.
Folded down to a wide band Hair off the face without covering it. Same square, a third of the volume, for the days you want less.
Over a coat, in winter light Deep red holds its depth when the light is low, which is exactly when pale colors go gray and disappear.
One honest trade-off. Red gathers attention without asking what kind, so this is not the colorway for somebody who wants a wrap that disappears. Black and Orange is the same drawing in the version that stays quiet, and it goes just as long between washes.
Same size, other colorways: Black and Orange · Pink and Green
Three details, from morning to night
How each one shows, day and night.
01
Sixteen momme across thirty-six inches Sixteen momme gives thirty-six inches of silk enough weight to hold its knot through the day and to stay tied through the night.
02
A deep red ground Deep red is a color to live in, rich beside black, navy or camel, and calm enough to wear from morning into the night.
03
Printed through both faces Wrapped and tucked, the square turns over again and again, so both faces are printed to the same depth and the lotus shows as richly on the reverse as on the front.
A cutting, folded in the box
In the box you will find a cutting from the bolt your square came from, so the silk can be tested at home and the scarf itself kept perfect.
|
Mulberry silk |
Polyester |
| Held to a flame |
Burns |
Melts |
| The smell |
Singed hair |
Acrid, like plastic |
| What is left |
Soft ash, 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.
The silk is tested at the Textile Testing Center, part of the Vietnam Textile Research Institute, an independent body, not our own lab.
Add to bag and check it yourself →
Thirty-six inches, and $153
Area is what you are paying for, and it grows quickly: 26 inches to 36 adds a third to each side and nearly doubles the silk, from 676 square inches to 1,296.
The hem grows with it: a 36-inch square carries 360 centimeters of edge, each turned, rolled and stitched by hand, against 260 on the 26-inch. Both faces go under the screens separately, and the motif was redrawn from archive photographs before a screen was cut.
A satin bonnet, a polyester head wrap and a separate neck scarf could each do part of this; one square of silk does all of it. Worn most nights, it comes to well under a dollar a week over five years.
What size silk scarf should I buy?
| 22 in → |
Ponytail, wrist, bag handle · $75 |
| 26 in → |
Headband, ponytail, neck knot · $97 |
| 36 in |
Full head wrap, sleep wrap, everything above this one
|
| 44 in → |
Pillow cover, shoulder wrap, everyday layer · $197 |
The honest split by what you want it for: hair off the face in a hurry, the 22. Hair covered completely and slept in, this one. Dark red is printed in all four sizes.
Getting it there in time
If there is a date attached to this, it is worth reading before you order.
Nine to fifteen business days to a US address, counted from the day it leaves Hanoi.
For Christmas delivery in the US, we recommend ordering by November 27.
Ship it straight to her. Sending it to yourself first and forwarding it adds a week you do not need to spend. We write your note by hand and there is no price anywhere in the parcel.
If the date is fixed, write to us at Folkformint@gmail.com before you order.
Which motif should I be looking at?
Each motif carries its own meaning, so a brief map before you choose:
Buying for someone who kept her grace through it all A teacher, a retirement, a long recovery: the lotus is for them, a flower that rises clean from the mud.
Buying for a person, about who they are For a mother, a new chapter or a fresh start, Phoenix Dance brings the empress's bird, carved at temple roof corners as a sign of peace and prosperity.
Buying for an achievement A promotion, a milestone, a leader or a corporate gift belongs to the dragon, and we draw it two ways: large at the corners in Dragon Dreams, small and repeated in center symmetry in Dragon of Grace.
Buying for a couple For a wedding, an engagement or an anniversary, Lotus Serenade sets two mandarin ducks beneath a lotus, an old wish for a faithful marriage.
The dragon honors an achievement, the phoenix a person, the lotus a life lived with grace, and the ducks a marriage.
“Isn't 36 inches too big for me?”
Rarely. A large square is folded before it is worn, so knotted at the neck it sits at nearly the volume of a 26-inch, with more silk in the soft fall of the ends.
Size only shows when you want it to. Folded to a band it is a headband. Folded to a triangle it is a neck scarf. Opened out it is a head wrap or a shoulder cover. Nothing forces you to use all of it.
For a bag handle it is more silk than you need; the 22-inch square is made for that, and our guide to which size to choose compares every size.
Buying this as a gift?
It is the kind of gift worth having ready: boxed, with no size to guess and no season to wait for, it keeps in a drawer until the right day arrives.
It also gives her a story: this lotus comes from the old citadel in Hanoi, and in Vietnamese it stands for grace kept under pressure.
For a teacher, or someone retiring The meaning is personal, a quiet acknowledgment of the years she gave, offered without a speech or a card.
For a mother, for no occasion at all On an ordinary day, a gift with meaning is the one she keeps closest.
If the gift is for a couple, or for bolder color For two people, Lotus Serenade sets a pair of ducks beneath the same flower; for a livelier contrast, Black and Orange is the one to choose.
The lotus beneath the palace columns
In Hanoi the lotus belonged to the architecture as much as to poetry.
At Hoang Thanh Thang Long, the imperial citadel begun in 1010, excavations uncovered stone column bases carved with lotus petals, the flower set in stone beneath the palace pillars.
Through the eleventh to fifteenth centuries it appears again and again: in the ponds within the citadel walls, in sculpture, and on the celadon and blue-glazed ceramics of the court.
Behind it is an old Vietnamese saying, that the lotus rises from the mud yet keeps none of its smell, and it has long stood for keeping your character when circumstances are hard.
Our studio redrew this lotus by hand from archive photographs of the carved pieces and separated it into screens; each color is then printed by hand in Hanoi, one screen and one pass at a time. You can read more on what the Imperial Lotus motif means.
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 Cold water with shampoo or body wash rather than laundry detergent. Squeeze, never wring. Dry flat in shade, never in sun. Iron on the lowest silk setting while still faintly damp. Dark 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 |
Dark Red |
| Motif |
Co Do Lien Hoa · Imperial Lotus · Ly and Tran Dynasty |
| Source |
Lotus in Thang Long palace architecture, 11th to 15th century |
| Weight |
16 momme |
| Size |
36 × 36 in · 90 × 90 cm |
| Print |
Hand screen-printed, double-sided |
| Edges |
Hand-rolled, hand-stitched · 360 cm |
| Testing |
Textile Testing Center, Vietnam Textile Research Institute |
| Made in |
Hanoi, Vietnam |
Dark red silk and a lotus, for the whole of the day.
Wound on at breakfast, still graceful at midnight.
Sixteen momme, printed through both faces, 360 centimeters of hem rolled by hand in Hanoi. It arrives gift boxed with a cutting you are welcome to set on fire.
Add to bag · $153
Free US shipping on orders $90+ No customs fees 30-day returns
