The Story and History of Silk

Silk is one of the most unique natural fabrics. Even though the production of silk is much more complicated when compared to cotton or wool, its a history that dates back thousands of years. As you probably know, silk is manufactured from fiber created biologically by moth larvae. But did you know that it takes 1,000 silkworms produce less than one half pound of raw silk. This is definitely something to think about next time you tie your silk tie of put on a silk shirt. To break this number down even further, the evarge men's necktie uses roughly 50 grams of silk the work produced by about 100 silk worms. Let's take this number even further. The average American male owns 6 neckties, and about 100 million ties are bought in the US each year. So just to supply the US market with neckties, 10 Billion worms have to go to work each year. That's quite a bit more than people living on our entire planet. And all just so you can wear a tie to work. Quite an interesting fact isn't it.

You now might ask yourself: Who invented silk? And for how long has been Silk produced? Well, the controlled production of silk was a secret known only to the Chinese for thousands of years. The production of silk was a secret and even in China, the fabric was for many years manufactured exclusively for use by the Chinese emperor and forbidden to the people.

Chinese mythology accredits the development of raising silkworms to produce the raw material and the weaving method for the fabric to Lady Hsi-Ling-Shih, the wife of an Emperor said to have lived around 3000 BC. Archaeological evidence, however, suggests that silk may have been in use there more than 6,000 years ago making silk one of the oldest fabrics that is still produced in the same fashion today.

Silk was not only used for clothing but many other items that could benefit from its lightweight and strength. Such items were fishing line, bowstrings, and even paper. In time, the material became so prized that it was used as a commodity like gold. While other countries pegged their currencies on gold China employed silk as a form of currency. In China, silk was a major factor in the economy of the country, and still the secret was kept safe until 200 BC, when immigrants reportedly stole the manufacturing secret, and soon after started Korean silk production.

Over the next several hundred years there were many reported attempts made, with many of them being successful, of smuggling silkworm eggs out of China. The eggs were carefully hatched and silkworms were raised. Eventually silk production was common in parts of Italy, Como to be exact, Spain, Persia, and even Morocco. With time each region developed their own secrets to weave the fine silk thread into fabrics. Today high quality silk is still produced in such regions with China still being the largest importer of silk. Often times China exports silk yarn to Italy where the silk is the woven and dyed into finest silk fabric.