Silk weaving was considered an ancient traditional skill of Viet Nam. Since fifteen century, Vietnamese silk had traveled the world with the traders by sea. Although there are many villages had been on the list of silk weaving, Van Phuc ( Ha Dong – Ha Tay is still the most famous by name.

Em về Vạn Phúc cùng anh
Áo lụa em mặc thêm thanh vẻ người


Chiếu Nga Sơn, gạch Bát Tràng
Vải tơ Nam Định, lụa hàng Hà Đông

( Thơ Tố Hữu )

The La, lĩnh Bưởi, chổi Phùng
Lụa vân Vạn Phúc, nhiễu vùng Mỗ bên

( Ca dao )

Ha Tay, once was Ha Dong and Son Tay, recently was added to Ha Noi , has been famous for the special and unique products made from silk that originates from the cocoon of the silkworm.

The silk-producing craft was introduced to Vietnam by a woman named A La, or La Thi Nga, who has since become the tutelary genie of the well-known Van Phuc silk village from Cao Bien’s erra. Later, la thi Nga was named as the village’s Goddess.


Simca the discovery of «  go vong «  ( sixteen century ) , the silk weaving industry of Van Phuc had been upgraded, the trade had bloomed strongly and many new designs created, the products ‘ quality also got much better, and different types of sil kwas created such as : Brocade, Silk, Pongee, Satin..

To create the best silk products, Van Phuc’ silk weavers had used a complicated but completed system consisted of several sophisticated steps such as getting the cocoon, removing the sericin, spunning, and dyeing the silk.

These are a few types of silk :

Brocade : Typically is thickly woven on a draw loom, with many colors and textures . The ornamental features in brodcade often were done with 5 or 7 bright colors, and used supplementary weft technique, that is, the ornamental brocading is produced by a supplementary, non-structural, weft in addition to the standard weft that holds the warp threads together. The purpose of this is to give the appearance that the weave actually was embroidered on.

Brocade, the queen of silk, is the most rare, and valuable in the silk products . The weaver who made the brocade need to be very skillful and creative.There had not been many talented brocade weavers, and according to legend, in the Le dynasty, Van Phuc was the only village which could produce brocade.

Vân : Van Phuc silk is best known for premium satin clothes and “cloud” silk (a silk cloth with a cloud pattern that appears to loom in and out), made from a skillful weaving technique which at one time was unique to Van Phuc craftsmen. There was a saying “ the La, lua Van, vai Canh” to describe the typical craft of each villlage. La village now is La Khe, La Ca is ussually make Pongee, Van Phuc is famous for silk weaving, and Canh Dien is known for cotton cloth weaving.

Silk : All the traditional glossy with either plain or details.

The, sa, xuyến, băng, quế : Crepe de chine is a lightweight fabric made by twisting some fibers clockwise and others counterclockwise, to form the tiny holes on the cloth. The twisted fibers are then woven in a plain-weave fabric, but it's the twisted fibers, not the weave, that gives crepe its distinctive "pebbly" look and feel rather than a shiny luster. Both sides of the fabric look and feel the same.

Lĩnh, đoạn, vóc, satanh: These are generally heavier weight and more densely woven. The density of this product is much thicker than that in silk , such as 8000 threads to 3000 threads in the later.

Since these are handmade products, the creativity plays an important roles. The Artisians and the weavers from generations had been focused in making the best  silk products in Ha Dong.

The art of designing the pattern on silk is also quite sophisticated. The artisians had used and modified theVietnamese ‘s traditional art   pattern , depends on the type of fabrics. The popular pattern had been used on the silk weaving products are Ngu Phuc, Long Van, Nguyen Hoa, Tho Dinh. The installation always symetrical, simple , clean cut but quite actractive.