She became a grandmother this spring, and the baby got the presents.
A silk hair scarf that remembers her too.
Some women are forgotten in the giving: the mother who flew in for two weeks, the mother-in-law who cooked and quietly left, the new grandmother whose life also changed that day. For her, two mandarin ducks beneath a lotus, a wish for a household at peace, in soft brown and pink.
A 36-inch square of mulberry silk in brown and pink, printed by hand with the mandarin ducks and lotus of the Ly and Tran Dynasty, at sixteen momme and hemmed by hand on all four sides.
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.
Sending it to her? 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. Our guide to which size to choose compares every size.
Why brown and pink at this size
On a face that has been awake The whole case for this colorway. Pink near the jaw puts warmth back where skin has stopped supplying it, and brown keeps the whole thing from reading young on a woman who is not.
Wrapped, on the days there is no time Thirty-six inches covers a head completely in about twenty seconds. On the weeks when somebody else's baby is running the schedule, that is the entire argument.
Over navy, plum, taupe, dove gray The colors women over fifty actually own. Brown and pink lands on all of them without competing with the outfit.
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 pink does not work: as the gift to the couple on a wedding day. It is the colorway for the women at the edges of the photograph, not for the two in the middle. Green and Pink is the same drawing in the version that reads bridal from across a room. And if the gift is not about a family at all, the duck motif is the wrong one - Phoenix Dance is about her alone and carries none of it.
Same size, other colorways: Green and Pink · Brown and Blue
What she will feel
The silk is mulberry, a natural protein fiber spun by the silkworm, each cocoon one continuous filament hundreds of yards long.
Two colors give it two moods: beside cream the pink comes forward, beside navy the brown, so it suits whatever she already loves to wear.
Sixteen momme also gives it the weight to hold a wrap through a busy day, however often she bends to lift a grandchild.
Three details for a busy life
Each one matters on a full day.
01
Sixteen momme at 36 inches Sixteen momme keeps the wrap in place through the whole day, no pins required.
02
One square, six ways She can wear it as a head wrap, a turban, a sleep wrap, a drape at the neck or a square over the shoulders, and there is no size to guess for a mother-in-law.
03
Pink with a brown frame Set against brown, the pink keeps its clarity across a room and in low evening light, so it reads beautifully in every photograph from the family party.
A cutting from the bolt
A small cutting of the same silk rests in the box, for any test she or you would like to make at home.
|
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 →
Inside the $153
Almost twice the area of the 26-inch, it carries 360 centimeters of hem rolled by hand, against 260 on the 26-inch, and each face is printed by hand, one screen at a time.
The motif was researched from period architectural fragments and redrawn by hand, and a mixed brown is matched carefully against the pink at every pull. Made in our Hanoi atelier and sent to you directly, it comes in at $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 |
For a mother or a grandmother, this is the size that gets used rather than kept. The 26 is worn at the neck and it is lovely; this one goes on a head at seven in the morning and that is a different kind of gift. Brown and pink 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.
If the date is fixed, write to us at Folkformint@gmail.com before you order.
Which motif should I be looking at?
A short guide to our motifs:
Buying for a couple, or for the family around one For an engagement or a new grandchild, the mandarin ducks carry a wish for faithful love and a peaceful home; our journal tells more of the mandarin duck wedding gift.
Buying for a person, about who they are For her own new chapter or a recovery, Phoenix Dance sets the empress's bird in soft pastels, a carved sign of peace and prosperity.
Buying for an achievement A promotion or a milestone is the dragon's to mark, whether the four large dragons of Dragon Dreams or the small repeated dragon of Dragon of Grace.
In brief: dragons for deeds, the phoenix for a woman's own story, and the ducks for a couple and everyone who loves them.
Using it as a sleep wrap
Thirty-six inches gives long, thick or tightly coiled hair room to be wrapped for the night, and for shorter or finer hair the 26 inch square is plenty.
Buying this as a gift?
The ducks carry the older, wider meaning of a household at peace, which is why they suit the women one step from the center of a celebration. It tells her you understood what the day meant to her as well.
When someone admires it, her answer is ready: mandarin ducks, an old wish for a home where everyone is at peace.
For a new grandmother Her life changed that day too, and this is the silk she will wind over her hair on the busy mornings of helping.
For your mother-in-law Sent after the wedding, it reads as heartfelt thanks, and at this size it is clearly no afterthought.
For both mothers, matched Two women, one motif, and two boxes opened at the same moment.
For the couple, or for her alone On the wedding day itself, Green and Pink is the same drawing in bridal colors; and if the gift has no family occasion behind it, Phoenix Dance is about her alone.
The ducks that crowned a palace
Their story began on a palace roof, and it is a lovely one to tell.
Among the finds at the imperial citadel of Thang Long were roof tiles named for their images, the lotus tile and the mandarin-duck tile, the pair raised on the palace roof as a wish.
Terracotta ducks already sat on roof ridges at Hoa Lu, the earlier capital, before the Ly dynasty and its dragons.
Mandarin ducks keep to their pair, so two on a roof were a wish for a marriage that held and for the whole household at peace, the older and wider meaning. The lotus beneath them rises from the mud untouched by it, an image of grace kept through hard times.
In our Hanoi studio the pair was redrawn by hand from archive photographs, divided into screens and printed color by color, 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 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 |
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 pink silk, and a wish for the whole household.
For the woman whose life changed that day as well.
Sixteen momme, printed through both faces, hemmed by hand in Hanoi.
Add to bag · $153
Free US shipping on orders $90+ No customs fees 30-day returns
