Mã Châu silk craft, mulberry farming and silkworm breeding have roots some five centuries ago in Duy Xuyên District in the central province of Quảng Nam. The silk trade was among central Việt Nam’s most prosperous industries in the 15th century, as it was among commodities exchanged with merchant European at the busy Hội An Port . But the trade faded by the late 1990s. Recently, however, the last local silk makers have revived the traditional craft while introducing modern techniques and marketing methods. Bùi Hoài Nam reports

Trần Hữu Phương, 48 and his daughter, Trần Thị Yến, 25, and five craftswomen in Nam Phước Town are on a mission to revive the Mã Châu silk brand. Starting with little more than a lingering hope in 2010, they have restarted hand-made silk production and begun marketing their products internationally.

The Mã Châu silk co-operative, which emerged in 1978 not long after the country’s reunification, once boasted more than 300 members working day and night for domestic sale and for export.

As market reforms were introduced through the 1990s, the trade could not compete against cheap machine-made textiles and garments. Raw Mã Châu silk fell into bankruptcy. Most craftsmen left the trade to seek better jobs.

“Our trade was on the edge of death. Silk fabric, which was used as material for fashion, was seen as not suitable for modern fashions among the young generation. Workers then left the co-operative. Only five middle-aged craftswomen still remained in the trade, earning their living from odd pennies,” Phương recalled.

“I was at a cross-roads. I had a long talk one night with my daughter about the idea of reviving the trade,” he said.

The father and daughter then designed marketable samples for finished products rather than selling raw silk to other craft villages nationwide or to traders.

“It was really a risky decision. We and the five craftswomen shared funds to set up a joint-stock company to replace the old co-operative,” he said.

Phương’s daughter, Trần Thị Yến, said she shared her father’s worries in restarting the old trade from deadlock.

“I joined the risky adventure with my father when I left a job at a bank to follow the craft from the beginning,” Yến said.

“Poor marketing and diversity of silk products available at the market as well as a lack of trade promotion had kept our business down. I boosted online marketing and advertising to attract customers. More products and new designs came out with the changes of technology from manual looms into more productive machines,” she recalled.

Simple: 100 per cent silk with natural dyes on display at Mã Châu silk company in Duy Xuyên District of Quảng Nam Province. — VNS Photo Công Thành

Unique dyes

Yến said samples of ties, scarves, long dresses and hand bags were designed and mass produced from 100 per cent silk. Natural dyes, diversified pattern designs and a range of sizes were added.

She said in the debut of new designs of Mã Châu silk in Hội An, a metre of pure silk with natural dyes was sold at VNĐ480,000 (US$21), while a mixture of silk and cotton cloth was priced at VNĐ115,000 ($5).

Yến said the price was double that of synthetic industrial-made silk categories.

Natural dyes, with recipes passed down from the older generations, used extracts of green coconut shell, fermented almond leaves, green tea bud, melaleuca wood, purple cabbage, styphnolobium japonicum (yellow colour), material of medicinal herbs and different roots, barks and fruits available locally.

Phương said he collected 20 colours from natural dyes from 15 families to create unique colours for Mã Châu silk among dozens of traditional silk villages in Việt Nam.

He said that in previous centuries, each family involved in Mã Châu silk production was in charge of their own colour creation. However, the old recipe of natural dye had been disappearing with the decline of the old trade.

Revival: A craftswoman works on a silk yarn spinning machine at Mã Châu silk company. — VNS Photo Công Thành

The owner of the Mã Châu silk company said the unique colours and persistent hand-made silk  fabric were the product’s most precious asset, adding that stylish consumers can recognise the difference between natural hand-made silk and synthetic silk.

He said hand-made silk production costs, including labour, silk yarn and mulberry farming, account for 50 per cent of the total cost.

The workshop with five workers-cum-shareholders in Duy Xuyên could produce 1,500m of silk each month with an annual revenue of VNĐ20 billion ($884,000).

Craftswoman Trần Thị Mới, 60, said she had earned a living from the silk trade for 40 years, and she did not want to change the job.

“The Mã Châu silk trade is seen as a family treasure. We began our lives with it from the time we were young to overcome the most difficult time. The trade still earns quite a good income for us,” Mới said.

“We need a stable market for silk to continue the craft as well as the pride of our ancestors over the past five centuries.”

Precious creature: Life cycle of silkworm. — Photo courtesy of Mã Châu Silk

The silk trade also creates good income for those who grow mulberry trees (whose leaves are used as feed for silk worms).

Hoàng Thị Phương Liên, owner of LiA fashion brand, said she had used Mã Châu silk for her fashion collections since 2016.

“We have used 10,000 metres of middle-grade Mã Châu silk—satin and silk with a simple pattern—from Phương’s workshop,” Liên said.

“By using Mã Châu silk, our fashion brand has helped Phương and his daughter realize their dream of a breakthrough to the fashion industry and getting the silk trade closer to consumers,” she said.

Liên said she hoped Mã Châu silk would be more widely developed in the near future as lovers of Vietnamese culture embrace the unique traditional silk trade.

Hồ Viết Lý, director of the HCM City-based Toàn Thịnh Silk Company, said he was well aware of the beauty of the Quảng Nam-based silk.

"Mã Châu silk in Quảng Nam has been renowned for centuries. The yellow cocoon is a feature that makes silk from Quảng Nam stand out from Vạn Phúc Village in Hà Nội and Bảo Lộc in Lâm Đồng," Lý said.

"However, Quảng Nam-made silk needs a special design that promotes the image of Hội An ancient town – the heart of Quảng Nam Province and the UNESCO-recognised world heritage site.”