TS-000011 Available now

Illuminated Boats — Lai Ruea Fai Mudmee Silk

Name: Illuminated Boats — Lai Ruea Fai Mudmee Silk (TS-000011)
Brand: Siam Loom
SKU: TS-000011
Price: 279 USD
Availability: InStock

US$2792 m × 100 cm One of one · quantity 1

Suggested for Wrap skirt (uncut) · sleeveless waistcoat · pencil skirt with clutch · wall piece

This is a single piece of handwoven Thai silk, 2 metres long and 1 metre wide — the size of a traditional wrap skirt. The ground is a deep brown; the picture is tied and dyed into the threads in red, river-blue, gold and plum before weaving. Rows of boats carry tiered pavilions with small figures beneath them, and a patterned hem border in blue and wine red runs the full length of one edge, finished with a plain brown band. The reverse is darker and more muted, as it should be on this kind of weave; both sides are shown in the photographs. There is only this one.

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Fabric code: TS-000011
Material: Handwoven Thai silk
Pattern: Lai Ruea Fai (illuminated boat procession)
Dye: Plant-dyed, as stated by the workshop
Weaving technique: Mudmee (weft ikat) on a traditional 3-shaft handloom
Length / size: 2 m
Width: 100 cm
Colour: brown · red
Origin: Thailand
Availability: Available now
Edition: One of one · quantity 1

The story in the pattern

Lai Ruea Fai is the illuminated boat procession of north-eastern Thailand. On the full-moon night that ends Buddhist Lent (Ok Phansa, the 11th lunar month), communities along the Mekong — most famously in Nakhon Phanom — launch boats covered in lamps and let them drift downriver in the dark. The custom is an offering: to honour the Buddha, whose footprint is said to rest by the Nammada river; to pay respect to the Naga who guards the water; to thank the river and ask its forgiveness; and to let the fire carry misfortune away. In this cloth the weaver has set that night into silk — rows of boats bearing tiered pavilions, with figures and candle-like spires around them.

How it was woven

The workshop label on the cloth reads: mudmee, handwoven on a traditional three-shaft loom, woven with hang-krarok twisted thread; Chul-brand silk yarn, grade AA; 85 lam mee; reed no. 70. Mudmee means the pattern is made before the cloth exists: bundles of weft thread are tied off by hand and dyed, colour by colour, then woven so that every thread lands in its place. The 85 bundles (lam mee) set how detailed the picture can be. Hang krarok — “squirrel's tail” — twists two colours of silk into one thread, which gives the ground its fine shimmer. The seller states that the threads are plant-dyed; the label itself does not name the dyes.

Care

Dry cleaning is recommended. If you wash it by hand, use cold water and a mild soap, do not wring, dry in the shade, and iron on low heat from the reverse side.

One cloth, cut honestly to its size

On the left is the real cloth for sale. On the right, the same cloth imagined as garments — each one chosen because it can really be cut from this piece. Buy the cloth for your own tailor, or ask us to make it.

Illuminated Boats — Lai Ruea Fai Mudmee Silk — Tailored sleeveless waistcoat — Tailored sleeveless waistcoat

Illuminated Boats — Lai Ruea Fai Mudmee Silk — Classic wrap skirt — the whole cloth, uncut — Classic wrap skirt — the whole cloth, uncut

Illuminated Boats — Lai Ruea Fai Mudmee Silk — Pencil skirt + clutch — Pencil skirt + clutch

AI-assisted styling images based on photographs of this cloth · not finished garments

Reserve this exact cloth

Secure payment by Stripe. Card details never touch our site.

Bespoke tailoring inquiry