History of Silk

For over 4,000 years, this sleek, sensuous cloth derived from a member of the caterpillar family has held the position as the “Queen of Textiles”. It has been woven into luxurious tapestries, rugs, garments, and accessories for centuries. There are two types of “silk worms” (as they are called). The commercial or cultivated worm feeds on a diet of Mulberry leaves, producing the finest, silkiest fibers. This specialized diet creates employment for thousands of workers. The mulberry trees must be cared for, the leaves plucked, chopped and almost spoon-fed to the young larvae every few hours. The trees are then pruned and sprayed for the next season’s crop. The Japanese have developed a food substitute by mixing mulberry leaves, soybeans and cornstarch. This could increase production and cut down extensively on labor costs. IT TAKES 8,000 WORMS CONSUMING APPROXIMATELY 350 POUNDS OF MULBERRY LEAVES TO SUPPLY ENOUGH SILK FOR 10 BLOUSES! There are over 500 species of wild silk worms which feast on oak and other leaves, fending for themselves. The Tussah worm is considerably larger than the domestic variety, sometimes growing to six inches in length, producing an egg-sized cocoon. China produces some 80% of the world’s Tussah silk. The Assam Valley in India produces a golden colored Tussah which cannot be reeled off the cocoon as with other silks, but instead spun like cotton or wool. Unusual eating machines, cultivated silk worms increase their body size 10,000 times in their 25 to 28 day life. They moult four times in this period. After a final moulting they find a place and begin cocooning. They extrude a semi-liquid mixture of protein and a gummy substance called sericin. This liquid silk is extracted at a rate of about a foot a minute, becoming when exposed to the air, the fiber that enshrouds them from the outside in, forming the cocoon. Unless being saved for egg production, the cocoon is subjected to steam or hot air prior to the worm hatching into a moth, to preserve the silk fiber. The filament length may measure up to a mile! The cocoons are soaked in hot water to soften the sericin, thus enabling thread ends usually five to eight forming a single strand, to be unravelled and spun together. Occasionally, two silk worms will nest together forming one cocoon with a double strand. The fibers will give a thick and thin appearance, which is known as Douppioni. Even though silk comprises a mere 0.2% of the World’s total production of textile fibres, it will continue to be a sought after luxurious cloth for the discriminating individual. As the New York based designer Oscar de la Renta has said: “Silk does for the body what diamonds do for the hand.”