Silk Clothing: Look Sexy in Silk

Legend has it that, around 2640 BC, the Chinese were the only people in the world to possess silk worms, and only they knew how to color and spin the silk threads into exquisite fabrics. The jealously guarded secret was smuggled to India by a Chinese princess, who hid silk worm eggs and mulberry seeds in her turban.

Silk is the most luxurious of the natural fibers. It’s a continuous protein thread which is excreted or spun by a silk worm to form a cocoon. It is smooth, transparent and cylindrical with swelling occurring at certain distances. Silk has a low density and is therefore much lighter than wool, cotton, linen or rayon.

Silk is used in dresses, skirts, blouses, jackets, accessories and underwear.

Despite the fact that silk is reasonably flexible, which makes silk clothes crease-resistant to some extent, they should never be spun or wrung dry as this would form permanent creases, says Elsa Liebenberg in her book Looking Good.