Far from the center of Hanoi capital about 10km, Van Phuc Silk Village is well-known as one of the oldest silk-weaving places in Vietnam until more than one thousand years ago. Experiencing the big changes in national history, Van Phuc Silk not only remains the enormously cultural values but also continuously honors Vietnamese beauty through each exquisite cloth.  It is likely that Van Phuc silk has become a cultural symbol of Vietnam, which went into traditional songs and poems through many generations. The description below may help you broaden your knowledge about this famous craft village:

History of Van Phuc Silk Village

In the past time, Van Phuc silk village was known as “Van Bao Village”. Due to the violation of imperial taboo, the village had to change its name into “Van Phuc” as the present time. Legend has it that there was a woman – a wife of a mandarin in the feudal dynasty came and taught the local people how to weave beautiful silk rolls from fabrics of silkworms. After that, weaving silk gradually becomes a traditional job of people in Van Phuc village. In gratitude, the local people built a temple in the village to memorize their contribution.

Like other categories of silk, Van Phuc silk was considered a luxurious good, which was only used for imperial members or nobles in the period of feudalism. Every year, local people had to pay tribute to their emperor the best quality silk.  They were also responsible for weaving the royal clothes and as a rule, it took about 6 – 8 months to complete such a precious silk custom. At that time, silk was often embroidered with holy animals and trees in the Eastern countries such as dragon, phoenixes, cranes… The reputation of Van Phuc silk even spread to the Western countries when French colonists introduced to international fairs in the 19th century.

Van Phuc silk

Along the development of the economy, Van Phuc silk has become a favorite product with both domestic and foreign customers. Van Phuc silk is divided into 70 different sorts of silk with 4 kinds of Asian motifs: animals, plants, objects, and graphic pictures. 

Van Phuc silk brings a comfortable taste because it brings the beauty of elegance for wearers. To make every inch of silk, the local people have to follow a complex process with high techniques. At first, silkworm was fed by mulberry leaves to take fabrics for making silk. 

After that, those bunches of natural fabrics will be dyed carefully over again, which creates the most perfect colors for silk. Because weaving silk is a difficult technique, weavers are required with extremely high skills to ensure the quality of silk.

Finally, fabrics will be weaved into silk with delicate ornamentations. In the present time, the local people in Van Phuc silk village have used the modern weaving techniques instead of the traditional processes in the past time. However, Van Phuc silk still attracts everyone because its quality has unchanged over time.

What we can do

Setting foot on Van Phuc silk, visitors have the opportunity to discover traditional techniques of making silk in the previous time.

Van Phuc silk village is also an ideal shopping place for fashion lovers. Visitors can buy silk products with the diversity of categories such as handmade silk clothes, scarves, traditional silk garments. You can also choose available silk rolls in local shops and design them into your favorite clothes.