Did you know?
According to a legend mentioned in Confucius’‘Odes’, roughly 2700 years BC, Princess Si-Ling-Chi, the wife of Emperor Huang-Ti discovered the secret of silk by picking up a cocoon that had fallen from a tree into her hot tea. The Chinese then figured out the important stages in the silk making process. Firstly, that the chrysalis (or pupae) needed to be stifled inside the cocoon before it emerged as a moth. Secondly, that the silk thread can range from 500 to 1600 meters. This silk secret was jealously kept for centuries, as it represented a fabulous commercial monopoly.
The History of Silk
Silk is a fabric first produced in Neolithic China from the filaments of the cocoon of the silk worm. It became a staple source of income for small farmers and, as weaving techniques improved, the reputation of Chinese silk spread so that it became highly desired across the empires of the ancient world. As China's most important export for much of its history, the material gave its name to the great trading network the Silk Road, which connected East Asia to Europe, India, and Africa. Not only used to make fine clothes, silk was used for fans, wall hangings, banners, and as a popular alternative to paper for writers and artists.
Silk is produced by silk worms (Bombyx mori) to form the cocoon within which the larvae develop. A single specimen is capable of producing a 0.025 mm thick thread over 900 metres (3,000 ft) long. Several such filaments are then twisted together to make a thread thick enough to be used to weave material. Fabrics were created using looms, and treadle-operated versions appear in, for example, the murals in tombs of the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). The silk could be dyed and painted using such minerals and natural materials as cinnabar, red ochre, powdered silver, powdered clam shells, and indigo and other inks extracted from vegetable matter.
Sericulture - that is the cultivation of mulberry leaves, the tending of silkworms, the gathering of threads from their cocoons and the weaving of silk - first appears in the archaeological record of ancient China c. 3600 BCE. Excavations at Hemudu in Zhejiang province have revealed Neolithic tools for weaving and silk gauze. The earliest known examples of woven silk date to c. 2700 BCE and come from the site of Qianshanyang, also in Zhejiang. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that the Indus Valley civilization in the north of the Indian subcontinent was also making silk contemporary with the Neolithic Chinese. They used the Antheraea moth to produce silk threads for weaving.woven silk date to c. 2700 BCE and come from the site of Qianshanyang, also in Zhejiang. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that the Indus Valley civilization in the north of the Indian subcontinent was also making silk contemporary with the Neolithic Chinese. They used the Antheraea moth to produce silk threads for weaving.
However, silk production on a large scale and involving more sophisticated weaving techniques would only appear from the Chinese Shang and Zhou dynasties in the 2nd millennium BCE. Silk then became one of the most important manufactured and traded goods in ancient China, and finds of Shang dynasty (c. 1600 - 1046 BCE) silk in an Egyptian tomb are testimony to its esteemed value and use in early international trade.
During the Han dynasty, the quality of silk improved even further, becoming finer, stronger, and often with multicoloured embroidered patterns and designs of human and animal figures. Chinese character are also woven into the fabric of many surviving examples. The weave of some Han period pieces, with 220 warp threads per centimetre,is extremely fine. The cultivation of the silk worms themselves also became more sophisticated from the 1st Century CE with techniques used to speed up or slow their growth by adjusting the temperature of their environment. Different breeds were used, and these were crossed to create silk worms capable of producing threads with different qualities useful to the weavers.
Eventually, the Chinese could no longer keep the lucartive secret of silk production to themselves and it began to be manufactured in Korea and Japan where it would become a state-controlled industry. Other states and cultures then acquired the skills of sericulture such as India around 300 CE, and from there it spread to Byzantium, Arabia, the Levant, and Italy.
THE BENEFITS OF SILK!
LIGHTWEIGHT
Silkbody is soft and extremely lightweight. You feel like you’re hardly wearing anything at all.
DRY
Silk keeps your skin dry because the hygroscopic silk fibre absorbs one third its own weight in moisture without feeling damp. The absorbed moisture is evaporated into the environment or absorbed by outer clothing layers. Silk also dries fast – on or off the body.
SAFE AND NATURAL
Our fabrics are made from only natural fibres. Silk is one of the safest fibres you can wear next to your skin because it is naturally flame resistant. Where synthetics melt, silk burns to harmless ash
ONE GARMENT FOR ALL SEASONS
Winter and Summer, Silk provides thermal balance. Wear your Silk for luxurious warmth in winter or as a super-lightweight, breathable garment in summer that will keep you dry and cool. Its versatility makes it perfect for travel.
SMOOTH AS
Silk feels softer against the skin than other fibres because it has a smooth surface and is extremely fine. With an average diameter of 11 microns (0.011mm), the silk fibre is one of the softest you can wear. Everyone can appreciate this, but it’s particularly important for those with sensitive skins.