Wedding dress making in Giao Lac

Giao Lac commune (Giao Thuy district) is located along the coast. Previously, the people mainly lived from agricultural production and aquaculture. However, since the 2000s, wedding dress making has begun to develop, boosting household economies and becoming the main occupation of the locality.

The wedding dress sewing business owned by Ms. Dinh Thi Xuan in Giao Lac commune (Giao Thuy district) is highly profitable .

In Giao Lac commune, there are nearly 300 establishments specializing in wedding dress production, providing employment for almost 3,000 local workers. The products are diverse in style, design, and price. Customers can choose from many different dress styles, from classic to modern designs. Wedding dress producers in Giao Lac are not only skilled but also very perceptive, quickly grasping customer psychology and tastes, understanding market trends, and knowing how to provide excellent customer service, resulting in bustling trade. Along with the strong development of information technology, wedding dress production facilities are also boldly promoting their products online through websites, Facebook, Zalo, etc., to reach and connect with customers both domestically and internationally. Customers can browse designs on websites and social media or contact the factory owners directly to view samples, place orders, and transfer deposits; the households then ship the goods directly to their location. Thanks to this, Giao Lac wedding dresses have "reached far and wide" throughout the provinces and cities of the country, and even been exported to neighboring countries.

Ms. Do Thi Lan, from Dai Dong village, is one of the first owners of a wedding dress tailoring business in Giao Lac commune. With over 20 years of experience, starting with just a few people, her business now provides stable employment for over 50 workers, with incomes ranging from 7-10 million VND per person per month. Many workers spend their days at the workshop and take finished products home to do extra work, earning up to nearly 20 million VND per month. Skilled tailors with good design abilities earn even more. Ms. Lan shared: "In the early days of my career, I had to travel everywhere, visiting wedding dress shops to introduce my products. Completing a wedding dress involves many steps, such as conceptualization, fabric cutting, sewing, bodice assembly, pattern design, flower embellishment, and beadwork. Workers are divided into different stages. The most important stage is design, because whether the product is visually appealing and meets customer preferences depends on this stage." Therefore, Ms. Lan has to either design the dresses herself or delegate this task to skilled craftsmen. After completion, each product is thoroughly inspected by the owner before delivery to customers. Thanks to her perseverance, dedication to improving her skills, updating designs, and keeping up with online sales trends on social media, her family's business now has a stable customer base, with an increasing number of orders. Currently, Ms. Lan's workshop produces 50-60 dresses a day, with a monthly sales volume of up to 1,500 dresses, priced from 1 to 5 million VND per product or higher depending on the design. Meticulously crafting each small detail to assemble the bodice of the dress, Ms. Tran Thi Thuy, a worker at Ms. Lan's workshop, shared: "Besides diligence and meticulousness, a seamstress needs experience, skill, and a refined sense of aesthetics to create fashionable and trendy dresses that cater to the diverse preferences of brides on their big day. Since the wedding dress making profession emerged, the lives of people in my hometown have become increasingly stable."

Ms. Dinh Thi Xuan, from Hamlet 1, has achieved success in the wedding dress tailoring business thanks to her dynamism and willingness to think outside the box and take risks. In 2005, Ms. Xuan received a 50 million VND loan from the Giao Lac Commune Women's Union, a preferential loan from the Giao Thuy District Social Policy Bank, which provided her with additional capital to invest in the production and business of wedding dresses. She also actively participated in training courses on entrepreneurship and labor management; focused on training and improving the skills of her workers; invested in modern machinery; and improved designs to meet order requirements, building a reputation in the market with sales exceeding 2,000 products per month. Thanks to the support of the Women's Union at all levels and her diligence, hard work, and responsibility, her tailoring workshop gradually stabilized and developed, providing stable employment for more than 20 local women. Many people from neighboring communes come to wedding dress workshops in Giao Lac commune to import raw materials for finishing and selling, creating a closed, diverse, and dynamic production value chain. Since 2019, Mr. Tran Viet Toan in Giao Thien commune has boldly invested in importing raw wedding dresses from households in Giao Lac commune to decorate, finish, and sell them on social media. From the early days of uncertainty, Mr. Toan's workshop now receives over 100 orders daily for provinces nationwide and exports to neighboring countries such as Laos and Cambodia, with prices ranging from 2 to 5 million VND per wedding dress. This has also created stable jobs for 14 workers with salaries ranging from 14 to 20 million VND per person per month. Currently, his two sons are also following in his footsteps and continuing to expand the workshop's market reach.

From meticulous stitching and keen market awareness to reasonable pricing, the wedding dress tailoring profession in Giao Lac commune has quickly established itself in both domestic and international markets. Not only does it provide a stable income and contribute to the restructuring of the rural economy, but it also creates a significant source of income for the people and helps to provide employment for a large number of rural workers during the off-season, especially rural women. Giao Lac is no longer just a purely agricultural area, but has become a shining example of industrial development with modern technology. Passion, creativity, and determination to succeed are the "keys" that help the people here conquer this promising market and create beautiful stories from their diligent hands.

Text and photos: Thanh Hoa

Source: https://baonamdinh.vn/kinh-te/202506/nghe-may-vaycuoio-giao-lac-7950243/