Silk Guide
Silk 101
For thousands of years, silk has been considered the most luxurious textile material and got the reputation of "Queen of the Fibers”, yet many people have limited knowledge about silk. Here we made a brief yet comprehensive introduction of silk from its history to fabric, use, and care.
History of silk
Silk and silk production is known as sericulture, whose long history dating back to thousands of years ago is as rich and interesting as the fabric itself.
It's said that before 2700 BC, when ancient China was still in the tribal era, Lei Zu, the wife of Huangdi, the leader of the tribal alliance, accidentally discovered cocoons in the wild. When they took the cocoons back from the tree, they found these white oval balls were inedible. Lei Zu tried to weave the boiled cocoons into the fabric and found clothes made from this fabric were pretty comfortable and beautiful. Since then, China started the history of using silk for clothes.
The history of discovering and using silk for China has been thousands of years, and till the three-century BC, silk was brought to Europe from China. European aristocrats were fascinated by this stunning fabric and exclaimed, "it's a miracle of beauty." It's undoubtful that China has unbeatable experience and techniques in silk-producing and manufacturing.
It's said that before 2700 BC, when ancient China was still in the tribal era, Lei Zu, the wife of Huangdi, the leader of the tribal alliance, accidentally discovered cocoons in the wild. When they took the cocoons back from the tree, they found these white oval balls were inedible. Lei Zu tried to weave the boiled cocoons into the fabric and found clothes made from this fabric were pretty comfortable and beautiful. Since then, China started the history of using silk for clothes.
The history of discovering and using silk for China has been thousands of years, and till the three-century BC, silk was brought to Europe from China. European aristocrats were fascinated by this stunning fabric and exclaimed, "it's a miracle of beauty." It's undoubtful that China has unbeatable experience and techniques in silk-producing and manufacturing.
What is mulberry silk
Mulberry silk refers to silk made from cocoons of silkworms reared in captivity, eating only mulberry leaves. The entire production process has been carefully monitored, and the environment of the silkworms is also strictly controlled.
These allow the cocoons to spin silk threads that are rounder, more excellent, smoother, lighter, and more uniformly colored than any other type of silk in the world. Mulberry silk fibers are also firm, easily beating steel fibers of the same diameter in strength and durability.
What is momme
Mommes(mm) is a unit traditionally used to measure the quality of silk fabrics. 1 Momme = 4.340 grams per square meter; 8 mommes is approximately 1 ounce per square yard or 35 grams per square meter.
So the higher the momme the better? No, it depends. For silk bedding, 22mm ~ 25mm is the best, while for clothes, 16mm ~ 22 mm is acceptable.
Silk VS satin VS cotton
See the difference:
