Lao Fabrics

Four colourful woven fabrics, two silk, two silk-cotton.

These are four of the six fabrics I bought in Luang Prabang, just before I stuffed them in a DHL box to ship home. I had no iron so they don't look their best, but I wanted to show them as I really like them. These are the staple product of the Luang Prabang Night Market, which is primarily (maybe exclusively) oriented to tourists. Most are silk (upper right and lower left), but there are cheaper versions that are cotton/silk mix (upper left and lower right), and some that are just cotton. Some of the silks change colour depending on the angle you view them from. They're all woven by hand with complex geometric patterns and vibrant colours, and it probably takes at least a couple days to produce a mid-sized one (I'm a little sceptical about the "twenty days" that I was told for a 60 cm X 180 cm piece, but I don't know). The prices are absurdly low at $5-$15US each.