Two mandarin ducks beneath an open lotus, in green and pink.
A wedding gift she will reach for every week.
In the week after the wedding she unfolds it: thirty-six inches of silk falling open across her hands, two ducks meeting beneath the lotus as they once did on the palace roofs of Thang Long. As a silk hair scarf, a knot at the neck or a wrap across her shoulders, it joins the life the two of them are beginning.
Mulberry silk in green and pink, printed by hand with the Ly and Tran Dynasty motif of mandarin ducks and lotus, 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.
Buying this for a wedding or an anniversary? 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. The timing note under the size chart will help, since a wedding date never moves.
What green and pink do at this size
Wrapped, over a white shirt The pairing this colorway was built for. Green and pink against a light ground reads as spring rather than as an effort, and at this scale it is the whole outfit rather than an accent on one.
Over navy or charcoal Where it does the most unexpected work. Dark tailoring pulls the green cooler and lets the pink come forward, so the same square reads warmer against navy than it does against white.
As a sleep wrap, on any hair The reason this size exists. Pink keeps warmth at the face on a morning when you take it off, and green keeps the whole thing from reading as a nightcap.
Over cream and camel Tonal on one side, contrasting on the other. This is the combination that photographs as expensive and reads in person as effortless.
Where this motif does not work: if the gift is not about a couple. Two ducks under a lotus is not a subtle image in Vietnamese decoration - it means marriage, and it means staying. Sent to a woman who is single, or where a marriage is a difficult subject, it reads as a comment rather than a compliment. For a gift about her rather than about a pair, Phoenix Dance is the one at this size, and it carries none of that.
Same size, other colorways: Brown and Blue · Brown and Pink
What the silk feels like
The fiber is mulberry silk, a natural protein spun by the silkworm, with every cocoon unwinding into a single thread hundreds of yards long.
Beside white the green comes forward, beside navy the pink, so the one square gives her two different outfits.
It also holds where she ties it, sixteen momme giving the wrap the weight to stay at the crown all day.
Three details for everyday wear
Each one matters from the honeymoon on.
01
Sixteen momme at 36 inches Sixteen momme lets the wrap keep its tuck through a whole day, without a single pin.
02
One square, six ways Head wrap, turban, sleep wrap, generous neck drape or shoulder square, and folded down, all that a 26-inch square can do.
03
Made for pairs The whole drawing is built around pairs, two ducks and one flower, and it is lovely at every fold, wrapped over her hair or knotted at the neck.
A cutting for home testing
In the box, a small cutting of the same silk waits for whatever test you like, so the gift never has to be touched.
|
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 →
The craft in $153
Nearly twice the area of the 26-inch, it is printed by hand through both faces, screen by screen, and a two-color ground of birds, lotus and insects needs every panel to land in the same place twice.
The motif was researched from period architectural fragments and redrawn by hand; made in our Hanoi atelier and posted to you directly, it comes to $153, a wedding gift that is used every week instead of stored.
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 wedding gift this is the size to send. The 26 is lovely and gets worn at the neck; this one gets worn on a head at night, which is how a gift turns into a habit. If you want it to read as unmistakably significant, the 44 is a shawl and looks like one.
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.
Ship it straight to them. 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?
Choosing among our motifs, briefly:
Buying for a couple For a wedding, an engagement or an anniversary, this is the motif made for two, a wish for a faithful marriage; our journal tells the story of the mandarin duck wedding gift.
Buying for a person, about who they are A mother, a new chapter, a recovery. Phoenix Dance, the empress's bird, carved in temples as a sign that the country was at peace and prosperous.
Buying for an achievement For a promotion or a leader, a dragon: four large ones at the corners of Dragon Dreams, or a small one repeated around a center in Dragon of Grace.
In short, the ducks belong to couples, the phoenix to a woman, and the dragon to an achievement.
Using it as a sleep wrap
For long, thick or tightly coiled hair, thirty-six inches wraps completely for the night with silk to spare; for shorter or finer hair, the 26 inch square is plenty, and our guide to which size to choose sets the sizes side by side.
Buying this as a wedding or anniversary gift?
Of all our motifs, this is the one made for a wedding, and it arrives with its meaning already attached, needing no card to explain it.
When someone asks about it, she can smile and say: two mandarin ducks, a wedding wish from old Vietnam.
For the bride, before the day It is the gift few think to send, yet she will wrap her hair in it the night before and the morning of, a wedding gift she uses before the vows.
For a wedding, as the main gift It is off the registry and still loved twenty years on, and green and pink suits a spring or summer wedding, with no size to guess.
For a paper anniversary A wish in silk that says what the paper gift says, and lasts far longer.
For someone single, or a tender subject Two ducks speak of a pair, so where marriage is not the story, send Phoenix Dance, the motif about her alone.
A wish set on a palace roof
It began high above the court, on a roof.
When archaeologists excavated the imperial citadel at Thang Long, they found roof tiles named for what was on them: the lotus tile and the mandarin-duck tile. The pair belonged to the palace roof itself, a wish made in terracotta and set high where everyone could see it.
The duck figures were terracotta, set along the ridge of the roof, and they are older than the dragons: they appear at Hoa Lu, the earlier capital, before the Ly dynasty. Our studio redraws the pair by hand in Hanoi from archive photographs.
Mandarin ducks are known for keeping to one partner, so a pair on the roof was a wish for a lasting marriage and a peaceful home. The lotus beneath them adds its own grace, a flower rising from the mud untouched by it.
Each color is laid by hand in Hanoi, one screen and one pass at a time, panel by panel, so the pair she wears was printed the way it was drawn, slowly.
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 them? 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 |
Green 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 |
Green and pink silk for the life they are beginning.
Worn on ordinary days, which is where marriages happen.
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
