How to live in harmony with nature?
What Indigenous Knowledge Can A Tree Species Teach Us?
In Lơ Silk Project
Heaven Tests Human Heart
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The Lơ Silk Vietnam project is in collaboration with ChiLab Vietnam and photographed by Chiron Duong.
“Lanh My A” silk is not only a noun to name a type of silk, but also an adjective to talk about the most sophisticated and aesthetic silk of Vietnam. A type of silk that contains the beauty of Vietnamese aesthetic philosophy. Combined with silk thread and dyed with mac nua fruit (Diospyros mollis), it creates a unique black color that is not easy to find. And it is that black color that moves the souls of many people who have touched it. But any precious beauty is also the exchange of sweat, tears, hard work, and challenges from heaven before people’s hearts.
This photo series not only focuses on showing the beauty of Lanh My A silk, but also shows the hard work of creating this silk by hand. The artisans have spent their youth creating this silk and are gradually on the path to extinction if there is no successor. Besides, creating beautiful silk also depends on the land and sky; the more beautiful the silk is, the more it proves the perseverance of the people who create this silk. From planting Mac Nua trees (Diospyros mollis fruit), following the climate, creating the cleanest and most sustainable environments to produce the best quality fruit used as dye. Finally, what will happen when the last people who make this Silk disappear?
To get the jet black color of Lanh My A silk, it has to go through about 100 times of dyeing, 20 times of washing, and about 10 times of beating.
The “hometown” of this shimmering silk is Tan Chau. Tan Chau town (An Giang province) is known for its long-standing silk weaving profession, along with the high-end silk fabric brand Lanh My A. Although it is a famous silk-weaving village, Tan Chau is still struggling with the fact that currently, the number of people willing to buy and understand the value of high-end silk is very small.
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The silk thread used to weave Lanh My A silk must be completely natural silk, usually taken from the Bao Loc highlands (Lam Dong province). After the silk is woven, Lanh My A will be soaked in a dye solution made from the sap of the Mac Nua fruit, a rare tree common in Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. The Mac Nua (Diospyros mollis fruit) is only about 1 to 2cm in diameter. After harvesting, it can only be kept for 3 days and contains a lot of tannin (the substance that creates black color, tannin is the reason why Lanh My A is always black).
Lanh My A Silk is dried on grass that is stiff enough to hold the fabric up to the sun, but soft enough not to scratch the fabric.
100kg of crushed mac nua (Diospyros mollis fruit) will have enough resin to dye 20m of silk.
The color treatment process for Lanh My A often takes more than 45 days. In addition, the latex of Mac Nua (Diospyros mollis fruit) is very sticky to human skin, so the dyer will have to endure the black stains on his body throughout his career.
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The weaver will set up the loom to watch the frame, stand by the fabric to avoid errors, and remove the slightly wrinkled silk thread. The entire silk tree seems to be woven from a single silk thread. After the fabric is woven, a very careful person, wearing glasses and holding tweezers, meticulously examines every millimeter to “save” the slightly wrinkled silk threads on the silk surface.
The areas where the plants are grown must be ensured to be grown entirely using natural processes without chemicals. The cyclic processes ensure that the plants grow naturally and are safe for the health of users, and are not contaminated with chemicals.
Making Lanh My A silk is very hard work, soaking white silk in Mac Nua water (Diospyros mollis fruit) to make each fiber absorb black color, and then drying in the sun; hot sun dries quickly, but rainy weather cannot dry. But the weather is like teasing people, mac nuoc trees only bear fruit in the rainy season, so drying silk is difficult. If it is sunny, but as soon as it rains, you have to roll it up and bring it inside, which is very time-consuming.
Following the climate, creating the cleanest and most sustainable environments to produce the best quality fruit used as dye. Finally, what will happen when the last people who make this Silk disappear?
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Handicraft fabric drying area in a weaving workshop in An Giang.
(Another type of naturally dyed silk fabric.)
About Lơ Silk Vietnam
Lơ Silk is a slow fashion label, thoughtfully designed and ethically made in Saigon. Timelessness, aesthetics, definition, and conscious living are the values at the heart of our brand.
Our 100% silk is exclusively produced in Bao Loc – Lam Dong, as well as in three long-standing silk villages: the legendary Tam Lang, Ma Chau, and Van Phuc. Each piece is crafted with care and heart by local artisans with over 20 years of experience.
Our mission is to make Vietnamese silk more wearable and approachable, while helping to preserve local sericulture.
About ChiLab Vietnam
Is there a world that lives solely on faith?
A question we received that contained both endearing and harsh insights.
From that, we pondered and considered how to design and create to adapt to the complex changes in our surrounding context. (Yin-Yang balance)
“Still Living” is the keyword we consider when guiding the design of our projects, a way of bringing energy to participants through everyday life, maintaining a balanced state of awareness: there must be joy and sadness… as an inevitable part of life.
