Click on the image to go to close-up of sarong

Click on image to see close-up of sarong

Old Thai hand-woven sarong being displayed (upside down) in a tiny shop in the old quarter of Hanoi.  The main body of the sarong is probably silk whilst the top borders (at the bottom of sarong as it is being held) are probably woven from cotton.  The hem (being held at the top) is probably indigo dyed cotton or hemp (or other plant fibre).  The Sarong is probably Southern White Thai and from the Mai Chau District.

 The shop owner is a Russian woman married to a Vietnamese who has lived in Hanoi for many years.  She drives up to Thai minority villages some hours from Hanoi to purchase weavings.  See the (narrow) lengths of handspun and hand woven silk fabrics behind her.  She saves small lengths off each of the woven lengths she buys which she hopes one day to donate to a museum to show the glories of the Thai (Tai) minority weaving skills.  The sarong is an old one from her own collection, purchased in one of the villages, which she allowed me to photograph.  I discovered this little shop in 1994 and visited it again in 1995 and 1996.

I visited a Thai weaving village, possibly one which the gallery owner visits, at the start of my 1995 tour where I purchased woven lengths myself as well as an old sarong of a different style. 

Click here to see a Gallery of photos of a Thai minority weaving village, half a day's journey to the west of Hanoi, which I visited in 1995.

Click on the image to go to a close-up detail