The Thai Fabric Chronicles continue with a visit to the Chiang Mai Fabric District.
The best place to shop and buy fabrics-all kinds of fabrics-is the Chiang Mai Fabric District. No other place comes close.
Almost all tourists planning to visit Chiang Mai will put on their bucket list an outing to one of the big three tourist markets: The Night Bazaar, Anasorn Market or Walking Street (Thanon Kon Durn). Nothing wrong with that.
But there is a more colorful, authentic and traditional shopping district where only a fraction of tourists venture-the Chiang Mai Fabric District. Although the Fabric District has its share of tourists, its main shoppers are local Thais.
Finding The District
Quick and easy to get there. Just tell any songtao, tuk tuk, or taxi driver to take you to Warorot Market. Don’t tell them to take you to the “Fabric District” as the locals don’t use that terminology. Or just say “Gat Luang” (translation-Big Market) which is what the locals refer to Warorot Market in their northern dialect.
Warorot Market is not your destination, but merely a drop off point for you to begin exploring the rather extensive and confusing warren of streets and alleyways that make up the Chiang Mai Fabric District.
The Fabric District is in central Chiang Mai area near the Ping River. If you’re standing at the Tha Pae Gate, you’re about a 15-20 minute walk to the district.
The Fabric District surrounds the Warorot Market building for several blocks in each direction. The district is so large and has so many nooks and crannies that it would take days to see all it offers. An afternoon is plenty of time to get a feel for The District and do some serious apparel and fabric shopping.
Side Note: By all means, go into the building that houses Warorot Market and explore. This market has a dizzying mishmash of Thai foods, sundries, medicinal herbs, and northern Thai food specialties. It is not a tourist market.
Shopping For Fabrics
For twenty years, I have shopped this fabric district hundreds of times. I sourced almost 90% of the cotton fabrics used in my import business to make fisherman pants, sarongs, Siamese pantaloons and harem pants from textile vendors here.
Most of the fabrics in the district are machine woven, although you can find a decent selection of handwoven fabrics in some shops. The fabrics are mostly imported from India and China and make there way here either through direct import, or a wholesale fabric distributor in Bangkok.
I know many of the larger fabric shop owners and I’m familiar with their businesses. Their inventories come from textile manufacturer overruns; discontinued stock; liquidation sales; unperformed contracts, and spot market exporters from China and India.
There is also a lot of “greige” fabric sold here. “Greige” is when a textile manufacturer produces literally tons of plain, undyed fabric and keeps it in constant inventory. It then can be sold very cheaply. Chiang Mai fabric sellers then order the greige and have it dyed or printed to popular colors and patterns. I’ve bought lots of fabric that way and had it printed to the design and color I specifically needed.
Bargains Galore
You can find very high quality flax linens from Italy, Poland and China at a fraction of the cost you’d pay in the U.S. or Europe. Going to have a men’s suit made while in Thailand? This is an excellent place to purchase top grade English/Australian worsted wool at very reasonable prices. Like lace? This market would make Chantilly blush.
You’ll find a staggering selection of woven fabrics that range from 100% cotton to pure polyester and everything between. You’ll easily find fabrics for sale at 35 bt./meter (about $1.05) that will cost you 10Xs that in the U.S.
There are so many fabric shops here that you won’t be able to even scratch the surface with a single visit. And the ground floor of a fabric shop is only the beginning. The buildings all have several floors where more inventory is stored.
Fabric prices are usually posted with large signs so you always know exactly what the price is. Bargaining is very rare in the fabric stores-again, this is not a tourist market.
A Little History Helps
Wororot Market and the surrounding Fabric District go back well over 100 years. Chiang Mai has been a textile trading hub for hundreds of years.
As I mentioned, I know several of the large fabric shop owners from my years of doing business with them. They are all ethnic Indians. Yes, they were born in Thailand and speak Thai fluently, but they are Indian in ethnicity. That’s true for a majority of fabric store owners.
Indians have been importing fabrics to Siam since the 14th Century. They supplied huge amounts of Indian silk and cotton to the Kingdom of Ayuthaya. Yes, Siam produced silk and cotton textiles, but Indian fabrics were better quality (back then) and much in demand.
So the fact that ethnic Indians to a large extent control the supply of Indian and now Chinese textiles into Chiang Mai (The city’s been around since 1296 A.D.) is merely following a historical path that’s been trodden for over seven centuries.
Not A Silk Market
I do not recommend buying Thai silk at this fabric district. I’ve bought silk here (plain woven) when I must purchase a small amount and quickly get it to my pillow maker in Isan to complete a special pillow order. Other than that I purchase my Thai silk elsewhere.
Please see my posts “Buying Thai Silk in Bangkok” and “Thai Silk: A Buyer’s Guide” for my recommendations.
Hill Tribe Style Wares
The fabric district is the best place in Chiang Mai to find Hill Tribe style apparel, handbags, jewelry and countless accessories. Selection and prices can’t be beat.
Along the warren of alleyways, you’ll see small vendors displaying a varied selection of goods. Fisherman pants trimmed with Hill Tribe embroidery; brightly colored yhams (a traditional shoulder purse); embroidered jackets; sundries in a rainbow of colors; purses. clutches and wallets of infinite shapes, sizes and designs, bracelets, earrings, etc., etc., etc.
I buy tons of this stuff and give to friends and family back in the U.S. I love it. It’s very reasonably priced and I like giving my business to street vendors.
But It’s Not Really Hill Tribe….
Authentic Hill Tribe wares died off fairly quickly about 20 years ago. The consumer market simply overwhelmed it. Demand was too great and producing authentic wares was too detailed and time-consuming.
Authentic Hill Tribe wares were originally made from the old, worn clothes of members of a particular Hill Tribe community. (Akha, Lahu, Karen, Hmong, etc.) The older the better because it gave a particular jacket or purse more character.
It was a win-win situation. The Hill Tribe community made income from of worn out clothing and buyers got authentic wares with great character.
Hill Tribe designs and motifs were accomplished by meticulously quilting small patches of this old worn fabric together. The wares also had lots of hand embroidery which together with the quilting created these fascinating items. I wrote a post about Hill Tribe Wares and discuss this in more detail: Thai Fabrics: Hill Tribe Wares
Today, the quilting techniques are completely gone and replaced with cheap printed fabric. Much of the embroidery is done by machines, although if you search diligently you can still find some items with hand embroidery.
In the Fabric District you’ll see many small stores that sell the materials from which Hill Tribe wares are made such as the trim, fabrics, beads, buttons, and ornaments. Small apparel/design businesses source their components here and manufacture and distribute throughout Thailand “Hill Tribe” style wares.
If you bought Hill Tribe style handbags or apparel in Phuket, Samui or Bangkok, it was almost assuredly made by Thais in one of the villages surrounding Chiang Mai.
That’s why I refer to these wares as Hill Tribe style and not necessarily authentic Hill Tribe.
But regardless, I love the stuff! It’s colorful, fun and unique. It adds pizzazz to an outfit. Hill Tribe style is the antithesis to the “stuffed shirt”! And if you bring it home to friends and family, they’ll love it too.
The Fabric District Is Not A Tourist Market
As mentioned earlier, this area is not a tourist market. It’s an actual working garment/fabric district that is primarily visited by Thais doing business.
Chiang Mai and nearby Lamphun Provinces are home to hundreds of small apparel and accessory manufacturers. I know this because I live in Lamphun Province and visit their businesses and purchase from them.
These small manufacturers source much of their components from the Fabric District.
Fisherman pants, harem pants, baggy pants, purses, clutches, handbags, shoulder bags, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, slippers, bedspreads, small rugs, hats, toongs (those long banners that often hang near wats), pillows, and miscellaneous brickbrack are all made by these small, rural Thai manufacturers.
Wherever you buy this stuff-Bangkok or Phuket-it most likely came from northern Thailand. I have often recognized handbags or fisherman pants for sale in Phuket that were made from fabric and trim from the Chiang Mai Fabric District.
The Fabric District has many shops that specialize in buttons, zippers, thread, mannequins, trim, lace, and sewing notions of every type style imaginable.
So when you go and shop the big Chiang Mai tourist markets of the Night Bazaar, Anasorn or Walking Steet, now you know that most of the apparel, including the Hill Tribe wares, was probably sourced right here in the Fabric District.
Finding Old Chiang Mai
The Fabric District is an easy way to see an old-style Chiang Mai that’s fast disappearing in the age of mass tourism.
At times, sweaty, confusing, congested, loud, dirty, and smelly. An authentic garment district whose roots go back hundreds of years. I guess that’s why after two decades I still love coming here. It really hasn’t changed much at all.
Hi Jeff. This is a fascinating overview. Do you happen to know if there’s any place in Bangkok that sells even some of this stuff? That would be very helpful.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for writing. Bangkok has its own fabric districts. I just never shop fabrics in Bangkok so I’m not familiar enough with them to make recommendations. Many of the fabrics in the Chiang Mai District are of course northern handwoven fabrics. Finding northern fabrics in Bangkok could be a challenge. Best of luck.
-Jeff
Hello, I find all of your blog write-ups very insightful. My first question is are the elephant pants the same as harem pants and fisherman pants? Secondly, based on your experience, if i intend to buy these pants in Chiang Mai fabric district – are there tailors or dress makers than can make it for me in different sizes, if I buy the mudmee material? Also, if I need my design printed on handwoven mudmee cotton material, is this expensive, can I get people to do this and do you have such contact, plus how expensive is it to print?
Your response will be much appreciated.
Hi Ade,
Thanks for writing. “Elephant pant” is a fashion term that people apply to many different styles of baggy pants. They are not fisherman pants. Elephant pants usually have an elastic waist and sizing is important. Fisherman pants have a wrap & fold waist and one size will fit many different physiques. Harem pants have a very low crotch seam, sometimes as low as the knees or even lower. Elephant pants generally have a normal crotch seam. (Although some sellers advertise very low crotched harem pants as elephant pants.)
The Fabric District is not an area where dressmakers or seamstresses congregate and have their shops. Dressmaker shops are spread throughout Chiang Mai. You may want to try contacting these dressmakers to discuss you needs: Feeling Cut @ littlemelody28@gmail.com, @lanna.inter on Instagram; Native Lanna info.chiccotton@gmail.com, +66 82 611 0611, @nativelanna on Instagram; Chiang Mai Design 89 ratchanucom29@gmail.com, @chiangmaidesign89 on Instagram; Lanna Cloth korea2prang@gmail.com, +66 97 047 9137, @lannacloth on Instagram; Chiang Mai Hill Tribe Clothing +66 89 956 7578, @chiangmaihilltribe_clothing on Instagram. Contact those businesses about dressmaking and they will give you tons of ideas and sources for dressmaking.
Yes, you can buy mudmee fabric in the Fabric District and bring it to your dressmaker. You can’t print a design on mudmee because it’s already a fabric with a pattern. (There’s no such thing as solid color mudmee.) I’ve had fabrics printed with specific designs in Chiang Mai, but the minimum I had printed was 100 meters of solid color cotton. I’m not sure if you can get a smaller amount printed. If you just want a couple meters of fabric printed with a specific design, then you really need to look into silk screening as that process is applicable to very small quantities. Best of luck.
-Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I found a great fabric shop in the fabric district of Chiang Mai a couple of years ago & loved it. I cant remember the shop name & didn’t take any contact details, the shop was on a corner but not a big one. Could you please give me a phone number of a fabric shop who sells black zippers on reels & the separate zipper heads. I live in Australia & have not been able to locate any contact details online.
Hello WD,
Thanks for writing. The Fabric District has dozens of stores that sell zippers of all sizes on rolls and you can separately buy the heads (pulls). The Chiang Mai Fabric District must be shopped on foot the old fashioned way. I’ve never called stores to inquire about this or that-I just go there and look around (or I already am familiar with their inventory).
Generally fabric stores in the district don’t sell zippers (or buttons, thread or notions of all types) or if they do their inventory is very limited. There are specialized stores in the Fabric District that carry a very deep inventory of apparel notions (zippers) for their commercial customers. Best of luck-
-Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I am looking for traditional Thai wedding outfits or Traditional Thai bridesmaids outfits. Where can I find those in Chiang Mai?
Hi Babe,
Great question. Thais don’t have bridal shops like we do in the U.S. or Australia and so you won’t find any in the fabric district. And there is no direct equivalent in Thai culture to a white Western style wedding dress. The Thai weddings I’ve been to (including my own) the bride will wear a high-end, traditional sarong and tunic or sabai. The bridesmaids will dress accordingly (usually in the same style attire). Many Thais have Western-styled weddings.
Queen Sirikit designed 8 traditional Thai outfits for formal occasions. Look over those outfits and you’ll get a good idea about Thai formal wear. There may be a style that you like. Again, traditional Thai wedding couture really doesn’t exist. Best of luck.
Hi Jeff. In what particular area in Chiang Mai Fabric District can I find a selection of woven fabrics that ranges from 100% cotton to pure polyester? I will be in Thailand on the 29th of June. Thank you!
Hello Anna,
Thanks for writing. I was in the Chiang Mai fabric district yesterday, shopping for fabric to make pillow covers. The district is chaotic with no rhyme or reason. Different shops selling different fabrics are randomly strewn throughout. For polyester fabrics, you should go to the larger stores that sell fabrics by the bolt. These stores are easy to spot because their entire inventory is bolts of fabric.(You can buy small amounts.) They will have a good selection of polyester and cotton fabrics. Many of these shops also have tons more inventory on their upper floors. Handwoven cottons (or silk) are sold in smaller shops that display the fabrics stacked on counters. You have to shop the Fabric District going store to store and strolling down the alleys (sois)
Enjoy your trip to Thailand,
-Jeff
Hi Jeff, this is a very comprehensive post! Can you suggest a good tailor in this area? I will be there next month!
Hello David,
Thanks for contacting me. I don’t know any tailors in Chiang Mai. (I live in Lamphun Province and that’s where I have my tailoring done.) A tip: The tailors that promise a complete turn-around time (for a suit) in only 3-days and only take your measurements usually produce a questionable garment. Tailors that need 5-7 days and bring you back for a fitting in a couple days usually make you a much better suit. Good luck.
Thank you very much for the tip Jeff!
Hi Jeff, hope you can help. I am looking for some colourful hill tribe-style fabric to use as table runners or centre pieces for my wedding next month in the UK. If I can find big pieces of fabric I am happy to cut them. I have been to the Worowot fabric area and only managed to find this type of fabric already made into things like purses, bags and dresses. Any idea if my quest is feasible? Do I just have to look harder?! I did start to flag so it’s possible I didn’t get to all the shops! Thanks!
Hello Sarah,
Shopping in the Fabric District can be tough indeed. Almost all the fabrics used to make Hill Tribe wares and apparel (except Hmong embroidery) can usually be found in the Fabric District. You have to shop many stores to find what you’re specifically looking for. And the fabrics are often not easily accessible inside the stores-many times I’ve literally had to clear a path to reach a desired bolt of fabric-and those bolts can be very heavy. So keep shopping if you like.
I have two suggestions for you: 1. Shop the Anasorn Night Market (near the Night Bazaar). They used to be my #1 place to shop for Hill Tribe wares. Unfortunately, over the years this market has become more and more for tourists buying knick-knacks. But give it a try anyway. You might find what you’re looking for. 2. Contact @chiangmaihilltribe_clothing on Instagram. (She also has a FB page under the same name.) I’m sure she’ll share with you where to source the fabrics you’re interested in.
Best of luck. And congradulations on your upcoming wedding.
Hi Jeff, just to say a belated thank you for your reply and excellent advice. In the end I found what i was looking for at the Sunday Walking Street market. A lady was selling beautiful vibrant hill tribe fabrics which were designed to then be made into long skirts. I cut each in half and used them as table runners. Thanks again
Great writeup! I’m a fashion designer living in Chiang Mai now and came here primarily because of how many great fabrics I found in that market
Do they sell large safety pins at this market? I’m a pattern maker from the USA, and I need them for draping.
Hi Kelly,
You should have no problem finding large safety pins at the fabric district. The district has stores (I’f say at least 7-10) that sell all the support products for people that use fabrics in their business. Good luck.
Hi,
I am looking for a fabric wholesaler.
Is Chiang Mai fabric district the right place to find one?
Thanks for writing Chloe. The basic answer to your question is yes. But of course it depends on the fabric and quantity. I’ve purchased countless fabrics in the Fabric District in quantities of 100-200 yards (usually 100% cotton or flax linen used to make fisherman pants) at good wholesale prices. I’ve also found fabric lots around 25-30 yards that I got great deals on. Textile manufacturers usually have minimum orders that start between 2,000-3,000 yards; so if you need such quantity you should just go direct to a textile manufacturer and place an order. But as I said, if you need small wholesale lots between 20-300 yards, then the Fabric District is a great place to shop. Check out Interfabric in the District for a great selection and prices. Best of luck.
I have bought fisherman pants from you before and I really liked the quality and durability. I want to buy more however I’m having trouble trying to find a link to buy. I hope you are still selling these pants please let me know how I can purchase some pairs.
Thank you,
Alison
Hi Alison. Thanks for writing me. We closed our store a few months ago. Thanks for being our customer.