Horsehead Lady: The Goddess of Silk

The beautiful and elegant brand story of Maeya Fashion by founder Lynn Tang

May 4, 2021

In a small town around Chongqing in the 1970s, summers were always extremely hot and humid. No family could afford an electric fan back in those days, most of the children there have heat rashes on their body and no one has a solution for that. All I remember now is that families would move their bamboo-made beds out of their house to their yard and sleep in the chill night wind during the summer nights.

As a little girl, I was born with sensitive skin, all my heat rashes will soon become one after another sore. I was so scared of going to the hospital, with all my struggles, my grandmother could not take me to the hospital anymore. My sores ended with my aunt chased and caught me through the town. She finally took me to the hospital and half of the town heard my screaming that day from the hospital.

My grandmother who cooked mung bean soup at home saw I was still crying after coming home, with medicine powders all over my body. From her great love and sympathy for her little granddaughter, she took out a silk handkerchief which was hidden in the closet and had not been searched by the Red Guards and sewed a gown for me to wear.

Once I put on the silk gown, my whole body was extremely comfortable beyond words. Soon, the sores and rashes were gone. I washed the silk gown every night after shower and it would be ready for me to wear the very next day. During the days of limited materials, my silk gown was the only one my grandmother could make for me

Among all the days I spent with my dear grandmother, with her waving fan and summer night fairytales, I learned the story of Horsehead Lady. I don't like any insects besides silkworms. They were so pure and chubby. And the myth of Horsehead Lady was the story about the goddess of the silkworm.

In ancient times, there was a father who went out to war, leaving his only daughter alone at home. The daughter keeps a stallion. One day when the daughter missed her father, she joked to the horse, "if you can help me get my father back, I will marry you." Hearing this, the horse ran to the war field and truly brought her father back. In order to thank the horse, the father took good care of the horse, but the horse refused to eat. Every time the horse sees the daughter passing by, it would become very excited and hisses loudly. The father felt this awkwardness and secretly asked his daughter. The daughter told her father what she had said to the horse. So, the father killed the horse and hung its skin in the yard.

When the father set out again, the daughter played in the yard with the neighbor's girl. She kicked the horse's skin and said, "You are an animal, how can you marry a human being as your wife? Didn't you ask for it when you were killed and skinned? " Before her words were finished, the horse skin rose into the air and wrapped the girl then disappeared. After a few days, the girl and the horse skin turned into silkworms and spun silk on the tree. If you look carefully to the silkworm, you will see it has a horsehead.

When I had grown up and on my way to go abroad, I went back to my hometown to say goodbye to my grandmother. "I don't think I'll ever see you again," said the grandmother, "but I have all the silk clothes I need for the end of my life. Go chase your dream and don't let anything pull you behind." Because when I was sent to the north to go to college, my grandmother mentioned the only wish she has was a set of original silk clothes, shoes, socks, gloves, and hats without any dyeing treatment. At the end of her life, she would wear all those silk clothes and ride a crane to heaven.

 The comfort of silk, its benefit to the skin as well as the elegant and clever noble temperament, made silk to become the first-choice material of Maeya Fashion. Because the design team has the convenience of speaking Chinese, it can help the silk work beyond the limit that only used for pajamas in the current top brands. So that the treasure hiding in the bedroom can sail out to a large stage and be enjoyed by customers from all over the world.