The foreign woman enters a shop in Van Phuc silk village near Hanoi with obvious relish and snaps up a trendy silk gown and dresses, robes, suits, tunics and shirts in a myriad of hues and styles.
Marissa Ivrin, who is American, makes a beeline for the shops whenever she accompanies her husband on business trips to Vietnam.
“I buy a lot here,” she says.
“Collections at shops in California are not up-to-date.”
Tourists from Europe, the US and Japan are not averse to shelling out US$10 or more for a meter of quality silk.
However, local people, who have an average annual income of around $800, too are becoming regular customers of the village’s shops.
“We receive hundreds of visitors everyday,” a shop owner, Nguyen Thi Ha, says.
“At weekends and holidays, the figure is much higher,” she adds, rearranging piles of various kinds of silk, some darker, some lighter, and almost all in eye-catching colors.
The middle-woman in an elegant calf-length dress with gold lotus patterns hires five seamstresses who turn meters of high-quality silk into works of art that are worthy of a catwalk.
Van Phuc, known as Vietnam’s silk hub, has more than 100 shops like Ha’s besides tailor shops.
They, together with similar shops in Hanoi’s old quarter – on Hang Bong, Hang Gai, Hang Trong and Bao Khanh streets – have helped the village’s silk artisans sell their works.
The village annually sells some two million meters of silk.
Last year revenues were over VND40 billion ($2.5 million), chairman of the Van Phuc Silk Weaving Cooperative, Nguyen Van Hung, says.
Van Phuc silk is also shipped to many countries, including the US, Britain, France and Germany.
“Our exports are still modest, accounting for only 30 percent of total sales,” Hung says.
The government’s policies on craft village development and Van Phuc’s own efforts have helped it make progress in the current competitive business environment, he says, adding life for the village’s residents has improved significantly.
The village no longer has poor people, and most households have TVs, fridges and washing machines.
“With an average monthly income of more than VND5 million ($310), we can live on our traditional occupation,” Nguyen Huy Tuan, owner of a small weaving workshop, says.
To boost both domestic and overseas sales, Van Phuc focuses on marketing, diversification of products, and quality improvement.
Hung says it has set up a website, takes part in trade fairs and increased advertising in the local media.
“We have participated in 23 trade fairs at home and abroad in the last three years. We have distributed hundreds of thousands of leaflets and brochures.”
Van Phuc is working hard to diversify and improve quality.
Tuan says, “We pay attention to varying models, colors and styles to suit customers’ tastes.”
Van Phuc silk, used to make costumes for stage performances and traditional festivals, is already a part of the daily life of people of all ages.
The village is upgrading production facilities to improve quality.
Most establishments have replaced handlooms with electric weaving machines.
Hung says, “Van Phuc has more than 1,000 power-operated looms, producing over 2.5 million meters of silk each year,” adding that many households have 15-30 of these machines.
Many weavers even use computers to design garments instead of doing it manually.
“Using computers can shorten the time it takes to design some complicated patterns from 20 to six days,” Hung says.
Van Phuc realizes the importance of not diluting its prestige.
“Despite rising costs, we are determined not to compromise on quality or increase prices,” he says.
The government, which considers development of craft villages an effective way to reduce poverty, has helped them get bank loans on easy terms to upgrade production facilities and technologies, and train human resources.
It has also encouraged state-owned firms and small- and medium-sized enterprises to help craft villages access advanced technologies and equipment and find more outlets through business and production cooperation.
With such support, Van Phuc, where around 800 of its more than 1,500 households produce silk, is confident of sustaining and developing its traditional occupation.
Reported by Thai Thanh Van |
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