Fabric Store for Ao Dai: Fabrics R Us

If you are looking to buy fabric for ao dai, then you must visit Fabrics R Us in San Jose. The owner is Vietnamese, and the folks who work there speak Vietnamese, Chinese, and English. The selections of fabrics are much better than JoAnn Fabrics, and I think the materials are much better for ao dai. I've had wonderful luck shopping here. Although, a word of caution, you will borrow a bit of frustration here.

The store is located in a little shopping plaza, and since there is so much fabric, they had to expand from the main shop into two other smaller shops in the same plaza.

Organizationally, the shop is messy. There is a small measure of order and in general, you can find different materials grouped together in sections, but the sales associates and the shop owner will know better than you. I've just had to walk through the entire store several times to see what I like before actually beginning "my hunt."

My future sister-in-law is from Da Nang, VN, and she was going to purchase a bunch of materials in Viet Nam and have them tailored back there. However, when she came w/ us and saw the fabric selections, she decided to buy much of her fabric here even the one for her white wedding ao dai, as well as the fabrics for her bridesmaids' dresses.

The fabrics are very reasonably priced. I went comparison-shopping at a "chuyen nghiep" ao dai store in the Century Mall in SJ, and I was quoted $440 for ONE ao dai. The woman quoted me $300 for the fabric for tunic and pant, plus $140 for labor (each ao dai has to be custom made, that's why). Friends, at Fabrics R Us, I bought enough fabric for 8 ao dai for a total of $225. I'm not joking.

[If you know of people who can make your ao dai in Viet Nam, it might only cost you $10 for labor. Plus the cost of shipping the dress -- unless you have a relative or friend bring the fabric to/from from VN.]

Several things to remember:

• If you pay cash, there may be a discount.
• They will often have 10-20% discounts, especially when they're trying to clear the inventory for new materials.
• Check the materials carefully for holes, cuts, rips, etc. before you ask them to cut. Once, we asked to check the material before the woman cut the fabric and they all said we were worrying for nothing; however, upon close inspection, there was a thumb-size hole in the yard that they cut for us so they had to cut us another yard.
• There are always a lot of customers and not enough sales associates so you have to hunt them down to get them to cut the fabric for you.
• After selecting the fabric that you like (such as for the pants of the ao dai), ask them to recommend alternative materials. They might be able to recommend something in stock that is similar in quality but more reasonably priced.

Usually, you can buy about 4.5 to 5 yards for one ao dai, complete with tunic and pant. It's usually 2.5 yards for the ao (tunic) and 2.0 yards for the pant (quan), but how many yards for the ao depends on your size and the kind of material you select. Sometimes they recommend you cut 3 yards for the tunic because (due to the design of some materials) they say the tailor might want extra fabric to cut.

My sister bought fabric for one ao dai for about $25 -- that included the fabric for the ao, the material to "lot ao" and the material for the pants. Sometimes the fabric is only $3 or $4.95 a yard. And if your pants are only 2 yards, well, that's a steal.

The most expensive yard of fabric that I purchased was $18/yard. They also sell pre-cut fabric that is specially designed and those range from $40-$60 each (tunic only, pants sold separately).

There is no website, but there is a phone number and an address:

Fabrics R Us
1745 Berryessa Road
San Jose, CA 95133-1129
408-9292-4330

These fabrics below are for my ao dai. Fabric shown on the left-hand side with the large flowery blotches, $18/yard. The clementine-orange fabric for pants shown on the right-hand side of the photo, $6/yard.

The fabric shown in blue hues: on the left-hand side with the black, blue, yellow and green tones, $10/yard; on the right-hand side with the sapphire-blue colors, $6/yard.















The fabric shown in pastel green tones with heavy embroidery: the tunic of the ao dai has a front panel and a back panel, and each panel was $18.00. The light green fabric for the pants was $6/yard, and the chiffon material for the "ao lot" was $3/yard. Each panel is the design of peacocks, feathers, and flowers, in embroidery, beading, and a whole bunch of other things that I can't really describe. Detailing on the panels is exquisite, though, and the colors -- simply stunning. We saw and knew it was perfect for the mother of the groom. And, let me tell you, the mother of the bride was given an even more stunning fabric in black, mauve, and pink -- but also peacocks in design -- also only $18/panel.