An ordinary anniversary, and brown and blue silk in tissue.
A silk hair scarf that says you noticed the years between.
Anniversary gifts gather around the round numbers, and the years between pass with a card and a dinner, though they are the years that make a marriage. For one of those evenings, lift the lid on two mandarin ducks beneath a lotus, in a quiet brown and blue that feels chosen for her by someone who knows her well.
Thirty-six inches of sixteen momme mulberry silk in brown and blue, hemmed by hand on all four sides and printed by hand with mandarin ducks and lotus from the Ly and Tran Dynasty.
16 Momme
5A Grade
2 Sides printed
We pay the import duty, not you.
Nothing owed on arrival, nothing added at checkout. Free US shipping at this price. Sent from Hanoi, most US orders land in 9 to 15 business days.
For someone special? 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. A note on delivery timing sits under the size chart, since an anniversary will not wait.
What brown and blue do at this size
Wrapped, over dark hair The reason this colorway exists at this size. Brown against dark hair merges into it, and the blue is what keeps the wrap legible as its own object rather than a shadow on her head.
Over camel, cream, oatmeal Warm ground, warm wrap, with the blue doing the separating. This is the combination that reads expensive in daylight and needs nothing else added.
With denim, any weight Brown and blue is what denim already is. Putting a silk version of the same pair on top of it reads as deliberate rather than as coincidence.
Overnight A mid-depth ground does not show the mark hair oil leaves the way a pastel does. Slept in, it still wants a wash every few wears, like any silk wrap.
Where brown and blue does not work: when you want the occasion to be unmistakable. This is the quiet member of the family, on purpose. For a wedding day or a first anniversary, Green and Pink is the same drawing in the colorway that reads bridal from across a room. And if the gift is not about a couple at all, the duck motif is the wrong one entirely - Phoenix Dance is about her and carries none of it.
Same size, other colorways: Green and Pink · Brown and Pink
Held in the hand
It begins with the fiber: mulberry silk, a natural protein spun by the silkworm, each cocoon wound from a single filament that runs for hundreds of yards.
Then there is the way two colors play against each other. Against cream the blue leads, against denim the brown comes forward, so one square gives her two different moods.
And it stays where it is tied, since sixteen momme gives a square this size the weight to sit at the crown from morning to evening.
Three details she will love
Each one shows once it is worn.
01
Sixteen momme at 36 inches At sixteen momme, thirty-six inches of silk holds its tuck and falls softly at the nape, with no pins and no retying.
02
One square, six ways Wound as a head wrap or turban, tied for sleep, draped at the neck or laid over the shoulders, and folded smaller it does all the 26-inch can, with no size to guess.
03
Two colors, each with a purpose The blue gives the brown its edge: wound over the hair, the two colors keep the square distinct and bright, so the ducks and the lotus read clearly at every fold.
A cutting, to test at leisure
Among the tissue is a cutting from the bolt your square was cut from, there so any test can be made on the scrap and never on the gift itself.
|
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. It is a home check, not lab proof.
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 →
What $153 carries
It is nearly twice the area of the 26-inch, with 360 centimeters of hand-rolled hem against 260, and both faces are printed by hand, screen by screen and one color at a time.
Matching a mixed brown beside a clear blue takes care at every pull, and the motif was researched from period architectural fragments and redrawn by hand. Every piece is made in our own Hanoi atelier and posted directly to you, and so it comes to $153.
What size silk scarf should I buy?
| 22 in → |
Wrist, bag handle, narrow twilly roll · $75 |
| 26 in → |
Headband, ponytail, neck knot · $97 |
| 36 in |
Full head wrap, sleep wrap, all the 26 does this one
|
| 44 in → |
Shoulder wrap, and the only size the whole composition fits on · $197 |
A rough guide when this is a gift: the 26 is a warm gift from a friend, this one is what she will use most, and the 44 reads as family. Brown and blue 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?
Our motifs each keep to a different occasion:
Buying for a couple An engagement, a wedding, an anniversary or a Valentine's evening belongs to the mandarin ducks, a wish for faithful love; our journal tells the story of the mandarin duck wedding gift.
Buying for a person, about who they are For a mother, a new chapter or a recovery, Phoenix Dance is the gentler choice, the empress's bird and a carved sign of peace and prosperity.
Buying for an achievement For promotions, milestones and leaders, choose a dragon: Dragon Dreams sets four large ones at the corners, while Dragon of Grace repeats a small one in center symmetry.
In a sentence: the dragon for her achievements, the phoenix for her, the ducks for the two of you.
Using it as a sleep wrap
At night, thirty-six inches leaves silk to spare for wrapping and tucking long, thick or tightly coiled hair, with weight enough to stay put until morning. For shorter or finer hair the 26 inch square is enough, and our guide to which size to choose compares them all.
Buying this as an anniversary gift?
The motif is the reason to choose it: two mandarin ducks beneath a lotus, a wish for a marriage that holds. Brown and blue says it softly, a gift for the evening itself instead of an event.
It gives her a lovely answer when asked: two mandarin ducks, an old Vietnamese wish for love that lasts.
For a year with no number attached The seventh, the eleventh, the fourteenth: the quiet years, when being remembered means the most.
For a wife who dislikes a fuss It is considered without being showy, a gift she will recognize at once as deeply thoughtful.
For a marriage of many years The brighter colorways feel like a new marriage; brown and blue belongs to one that no longer needs to announce itself.
For a wedding or an engagement When the day itself is the occasion, Green and Pink is the same drawing in colors that celebrate out loud.
Why two ducks sat on a palace roof
It begins on a rooftop, and it is the part of the story she will love to repeat.
Excavations at the imperial citadel of Thang Long turned up roof tiles named for their designs, among them the lotus tile and the mandarin-duck tile, so the pair lived on the palace roof itself as a wish in clay.
The ducks were modeled in terracotta for the roof ridge, and they are older than the dragons, already present at Hoa Lu, the capital before the Ly dynasty.
Mandarin ducks stay with their pair, so two on a roof made a wish for a marriage that held and a household at peace. The lotus beneath adds the second meaning, a flower that rises from the mud untouched, as a couple keeps its grace through hard years.
Every line was redrawn by hand in our Hanoi studio from photographs of those excavated pieces, then separated into screens and printed one color at a time, panel by panel.
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 - more often if it is being slept in. Cold water, shampoo or body wash rather than laundry detergent. Squeeze, never wring. Dry in shade, never in sun, and keep it away from perfume sprayed after it is on. Iron on the lowest silk setting while still faintly damp.
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 |
Brown and Blue |
| Motif |
Uyen Uong Lien Ha · Lotus Serenade · Ly and Tran Dynasty |
| Source |
Mandarin duck ridge-tile figures, Thang Long and Hoa Lu |
| 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 |
Brown and blue silk for an anniversary without a round number.
Proof that someone noticed the quiet years.
Sixteen momme, printed through both faces, hemmed by hand in Hanoi. It arrives gift boxed - or plain, if you ask.
Add to bag · $153
Free US shipping on orders $90+ No customs fees 30-day returns
