VietNamNet Bridge – Wandering along the famous Dong Khoi Street of Saigon, people can see Khaisilk’s boutique, a long-standing luxury store offering a variety of silk products in Vietnam. They may be surprised to see how beautiful a soft silk scarf or an elegant neck tie is! Silk is not only a beautiful material, but also the high quality Vietnamese fabric with extremely seductive elegance. The man who has built a silk empire and has helped promote local silk products to the world is Hoang Khai.

Businessman Hoang Khai -- File photo

Scarves and neck-ties made by pure silk have created Khaisilk trade name for 25 years. The products have been winning the hearts of domestic and foreign tourists, who love their beautiful colors and patterns. 

Foreign tourists as well as international leaders to Vietnam consider Khaisilk’s products as art gifts for friends and relatives at home.

As a luxury silk trader, Hoang Khai takes care of each silk product carefully. He employs weaving experts to his workshop to hand-make patterned silk fabric.

In 2000, Khai officially entered business in Saigon by opening the first Khaisilk boutique on Dong Khoi Street. 

Khaisilk’s success lies not only in sales figures, but also in the interest of foreign leaders like Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State; Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General; and Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile.

Tall, brunette with a radiant face and friendly smiles and dressed in a fashionable black cotton shirt, Hoang Khai looks more like an artist than a businessman. In fact, he was born into a music family. 

Khai is fluent in English and French. Doing business is a stressful job. When sad, or in need of entertainment, he often listens to music. “I enjoy the symphony and chamber music. It helps me get more emotion and sensitivity needed for business,” Khai said.

At the age of 24, Khai completed 16 years of studying music and graduated from Economic Law. At that time, his mother had a small shop selling flowers on canvas.  

“There were many foreigners coming to place orders for flower prints on canvas or silk clothes. Since then, I started to study silk fashion as a way to help my mother. Most of the big brands in the world are named after their founders, so I chose Khaisilk as the brand for my silk products,” he said.

From 1997 to 2000 Khai quietly studied the market. He saw it as a relatively difficult period for starting up a new business. But two years later, he overcame difficulties to build up his career.

Khai is also famous for high-end restaurant business. During his travels abroad, he realized that Saigon then lacked a high-end restaurant name in its true sense, and he found a way to meet that demand.

Khai is noted for a series of multi-style restaurants, such as Brother’s Cafe Hanoi, Au Manoir De Khai, Nam Kha, Nam Phan, Middle Flower Ming and Tao Li in HCMC.

Khai often leans towards the luxury and fine end of art. As a fashion businessman, he is always looking for new trends, which at first may seem strange to many people. 

“I have to find something really special, impressive for everyone. The market may be very cautious for a new trend or initiative, but in the long run it will be an opportunity for keen investors,” he said. 

“Though I have been active in various business domains, my core business is silk.” He plans to bring more and more Vietnamese silk to the European market next year. He also hopes his Vietnam Khaisilk restaurants will appear at major commercial centers in the world.

Khai is also the creator of many impressive constructions and buildings in Saigon, like Cham Charm Restaurant inspired from Angkor Wat, and TajmaSago boutique hotel inspired from Taj Mahal Temple. 

New creations of Khai include the 18-storey The Khai Tower whose exterior will feature a curly silk strip while the 20-storey The Prince next door will be designed like books stacked on one another. The two projects with total investment capital of US$40 million are expected to be completed in late 2017.

SGT

Cung Mi