Brown and pink silk for the mothers of the wedding.
The gift that says the day was hers too.
Two women spend a year on a wedding that is not their own, and at the end the couple goes home with a house full of presents while the mothers go home with a corsage. A silk square carrying the marriage motif says what everyone feels and no one writes down: this was your day too. Knotted at the neck of her dress or tied back as a silk head scarf for the evening, the brown and rose glow softly in every photograph.
A 26-inch square of mulberry silk in brown and pink at sixteen momme, printed by hand with a Ly and Tran Dynasty motif of mandarin ducks and lotus, every edge rolled by hand. It takes two seconds to tie and stays graceful through the whole celebration.
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.
Buying this for someone else? 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. For both mothers, order the pair together.
Why brown and pink suits the mothers
It is gracious and poised The reason to choose it over the other two: pink brings a gentle glow and brown keeps the whole square composed, a pairing with grace at any age.
It works with what she is wearing Mothers of the bride and groom often choose navy, plum, dove gray or taupe, and brown and pink sits beside all of them without competing with the outfit she spent months choosing.
It is warm without being bridal The softer colorways belong to the wedding party; this one reads as considered, the right distance for family.
It suits an autumn or winter wedding Brown keeps its richness in low light and beside heavier fabrics, lovely from the ceremony to the last dance.
For the couple themselves, the motif should speak more brightly: Green and Pink carries the same drawing in the colorway that reads as bridal from across the room. Keep this one for the women at the edges of the photograph.
Same size, other colorways: Green and Pink · Brown and Blue
What she will feel when she unwraps it
Mulberry silk is a natural protein spun by the silkworm, and every cocoon unwinds as one continuous filament hundreds of yards long.
Two colors give the square two moods. Beside navy the pink comes forward, and beside camel the brown does, so the same silk looks new with each outfit, and one gift serves a hundred occasions after the wedding.
And it stays where she places it. At sixteen momme the silk falls in one piece, and a knot holds through a ceremony, a dinner and a long set of photographs without a hand on it.
Two quiet comforts
01
A knot that holds all day There is body enough in the cloth for a knot to lock, so the square stays where she tied it from the ceremony to the last dance.
02
One square, four accessories Hair, neck, bag and wrist, with no clasp or hardware and no size at all, a relief when you are buying for a mother-in-law you are still getting to know; our guide to which size to choose shows the other squares.
A proof for the curious
Tucked in every box is a cutting from the bolt your square was cut from, so the test is made on that small piece and the square is 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. 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 →
Inside a $97 square
A far cheaper square is usually polyester, a different cloth that may pass in a photograph; at a wedding, among people who look closely, the difference in drape and glow is easy to see.
Every step is handwork. The hand-rolled hem takes close to an hour, and each color in a drawing of birds, lotus and insects has its own screen and pass. Our studio redraws the motif from period architectural fragments, and because each square is made in our own atelier in Hanoi and sent straight to you, it comes to $97.
What size silk scarf should I buy?
| 22 in → |
Wrist, bag handle, narrow twilly roll · $75 |
| 26 in |
Headband, ponytail, neck knot this one
|
| 36 in → |
Full head wrap, sleep wrap, all the 26 does · $153 |
| 44 in → |
Shoulder wrap, and the only size the whole composition fits on · $197 |
For a mother of the bride or groom, the 26 is the one she will wear at the neck and keep wearing afterward. If the venue is cold or the wedding is in fall, the 44 doubles as the wrap she will otherwise have to find separately - and at that point it stops being a gift and becomes part of the outfit.
Getting it there in time
A wedding date does not move, so this 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.
If the date is fixed, write to us at Folkformint@gmail.com before you order.
Which motif should I be looking at?
Our motifs carry different wishes, and this little map leads to the right one.
Buying for a couple, or for the family around one An engagement, a wedding, an anniversary: of our four motifs, this is the one made for marriage, the mandarin duck a sign of faithfulness and a household at peace. Our guide to the mandarin duck wedding gift tells its story.
Buying for a person, about who she is For a mother, a fresh chapter or a recovery, Phoenix Dance carries the phoenix, the empress's bird, as a wish for renewal.
Buying for an achievement A promotion, a milestone, a leader, a corporate gift: choose one of our dragons, Dragon Dreams with four large dragons at the corners like a painting, or Dragon of Grace with one creature repeated small in center symmetry.
“I love these, but I would never know how to tie one”
She will manage every one of these with ease, since nothing needs pinning or memorizing, and each comes together at the mirror in a moment.
The neck knot Fold it to a triangle, roll it, wrap once and slide a loose knot off center, lovely with a dress at a wedding.
The headband Fold it corner to corner, roll it into a band and knot it at the nape with the tails tucked.
The ponytail wrap Wind it twice around the elastic and knot it on top, the ends left to fall.
The bag roll Roll it narrow and wind it up the handle to a small bow, where it rests on the days she leaves her collar bare.
More than twenty further ways are drawn in the illustrated guide in the box, so no one is searching for a video on the morning of the wedding.
A gift for the mothers
This is the colorway for the women at the edges of a wedding photograph, the ones who did so much of the work. The motif means marriage, and that is the point: it tells her you understood what the day meant to her as well as to the couple.
It also gives her words to share. When someone admires it, she can say: they are mandarin ducks, and in Vietnam they bless a marriage and the home around it.
For your mother-in-law, from the couple The gift so few people think to send, and one that can warm a relationship for years; sent after the wedding, it arrives as pure thanks.
For both mothers, matched Two women, one motif, given at the same moment, a lovelier gesture than two different gifts.
For a stepmother, or the aunt who did the work Weddings are full of women whose role has no name and no gift attached, and this honors them without a speech.
When another square suits better For the couple on the day, Green and Pink carries the same drawing and reads as bridal from across the room; and for a woman whose gift has nothing to do with a marriage, Phoenix Dance is about her alone.
Mandarin ducks above the palace
The motif comes with a story she can share at the reception.
In the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, palace roofs carried terracotta mandarin ducks among their tiles, a pair set high as a blessing for everyone living beneath.
Why ducks on a palace? Mandarin ducks keep to their mate, so a pair on a roof was a wish, for a marriage that holds and a household at peace, a blessing for the whole family as much as for the couple. The lotus beneath them carries the other half of the meaning, for in Vietnamese it grows in mud and keeps none of its smell, the image of keeping one's character when circumstances do not deserve it.
Our studio redraws each motif by hand from archive photographs of the excavated pieces, then prints it in Hanoi one screen per color, panel by panel, a drawing that is ours alone.
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, 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 Pink |
| 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 |
26 × 26 in · 65 × 65 cm |
| Print |
Hand screen-printed, double-sided |
| Edges |
Hand-rolled, hand-stitched · 260 cm |
| Testing |
Textile Testing Center, Vietnam Textile Research Institute |
| Made in |
Hanoi, Vietnam |
One square of brown and pink silk,
for the woman in the front row.
Brown and pink mulberry silk at sixteen momme, printed through both faces and hemmed by hand in Hanoi, arriving in its gift box ready to give.
Add to bag · $97
Free US shipping from $90 No customs fees 30-day returns
