StyleBible.ph

Writing this at the conclusion of a weekend trip to Saigon  with the girls. (There’s nothing like an all-girl shopping marathon.)

The mission was to by fabric for my cousin’s coming wedding. Her good friend Patty Morato-Roa will be designing the entourage dresses and we were given free-hand in choosing the colors, textures, etc. So we set off to Hai Ba Trung St., to comb through a block full of fabric shops.

Thank goodness we had a local with us to translate and set us straight with the price conversion. (Converting $ to VND is mind boggling.)

Cousin decided on plum and magenta with hints of rust as her color scheme.

Peg from www. verawang.com

We found the perfect colors in charmeuse and were able to buy in bulk on the spot.

Floral appliqué on violet tulle

In the next shop we came across the last 2 meters of tulle with a beautiful rust and purple flower appliqué. After much deliberation, and a couple of long-distance calls, we decided that it would be the perfect accent.

Three stores and three checks off the list.

Rows of embroidered, sequined, and hand-painted fabric

One shop had an array of the intricately embellished and embroidered tulle in all sorts of patterns and colors. Most were sold pre-cut (usually 2 meters), paired with satin fabric, for Au Dais (pronounced “ow yay”), the traditional Vietnamese dress. It costs about $40 to have one made and they can get it done in about 3 days if you’re willing to wait.

Embroidered white tulle

Considered using the white tulle in above photo for her wedding dress (it’s beautifully accented with gold threads). But it was vetoed by her wedding gown designer, Joey Samson, after we told him that the tulle of this particular one felt pretty stiff.

However, couldn’t very well leave without buying a piece or two (or in our case more) for future use.

Green sequined tulle with satin

Grey soft tulle with sequins and embroidered roses

There were scores of silks, chiffons, lace, linen and more. Between trying to pick out the best from a gazillion rows of fabric and trying to converse with the not-so-english-profficient sales staff, it was a major adventure.

At the end of it all, we managed to find everything we needed. Even found beautiful lacquer at Dong Khoi St. (usually not a good idea because it’s a main tourist street but the pieces at Saigon Crafts were quite unique).

Got lost and found a hole-in-the-wall shoe store with the coolest shoes. Bought 5 pairs, each! But that’s one find I’m keeping to myself. Teehee!

Isha.