It's no coincidence that silk is known as the "queen of fabrics." Wherever you go and hold a piece of silk in your hand, you'll find it's always much more expensive than other fabrics. That's something we hear and experience a lot. However, have you ever wondered why silk is so expensive? It's not just because of its excellent breathability and warmth retention.
Vietnamese silk We will show you reasons that perhaps few people know about. Why is silk so expensive? so.
Most people know that silk is expensive, but why it's so expensive is a question that's not easy to answer. First and foremost, if you know how silk is produced, you'll understand the value of a silk fabric far beyond the quantity required to make a single piece.
Secondly, the entire silk production process is lengthy and requires a great deal of effort and dedication. Therefore, this information will help you make an informed decision about the type of fabric you will buy.
And last but not least, it will help you distinguish between real silk and fake silk available on the market. That's why you won't hesitate to pay a higher price for a piece of silk fabric. Lack of knowledge can be dangerous, but a complete lack of knowledge can lead you to make wrong choices that you might regret for a long time afterward.
And these are the reasons why silk is an expensive fabric.
As mentioned in a previous article on the history of silk, the latest records show that the Chinese were the first to discover and invent silk fabric thousands of years ago. This also indicates that silk is one of the oldest fabrics known to humankind.
Throughout the history of silk production, the Chinese kept the secret of its manufacturing process from the rest of the world for centuries. Initially, silk was reserved only for the emperors and members of the Chinese royal family. At that time, people only knew silk for its sheen, breathability, and warmth – its outward appearance. And that was all it took for silk to quickly become a luxury item, exclusively for the royal family.
In an era where products made from natural materials are almost entirely environmentally friendly, such as silk This is undoubtedly the most compelling reason why silk is more expensive than mass-produced industrial fabrics.
Silk is meticulously extracted from cocoons. Although silk is now primarily produced by mulberry growers and silkworm breeders – a completely manual process – in some places, silk is made from the cocoons of silkworms – a completely natural process, but in very small quantities. However, the difference in quality between the silk threads is not very clear. Therefore, silk made from cultivated silkworms is more popular and is the main industry for producing silk fabrics.
This entirely natural production process has elevated silk to a new level, far superior to the rest of the mass-produced, industrially manufactured fabrics of today.
The process of creating a genuine silk fabric is a laborious and time-consuming one. It also requires immense patience and boundless love from the silk artisans.
You're probably familiar with the famous Vietnamese proverb: "Raising pigs means eating while lying down, raising silkworms means eating while standing," right? This proverb alludes to the hardship and difficulty faced by those involved in mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing, silk reeling, and silk weaving. All stages are entirely manual, without any chemical intervention or the use of machinery to speed up production.
And of course, with any object or item that takes so much time and effort to complete (handmade), the exclusivity of that product will naturally rise to become top-notch. And silk is one such material. You should know that handmade Handmade products are becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
Besides the time and effort involved in creating silk, to give you a better idea, you can refer to the following figures:
From the time the silkworms are shorn to the weaving and natural dyeing of the silk, the completion time varies depending on the product, averaging about 3-4 months. Some products, requiring meticulous attention to detail from the silk artisans, may take up to 9-10 months.
Silk is a type of protein from silkworms, and silkworms continuously produce this protein to provide moisture and other micronutrients to your skin. Therefore, it is a unique fabric unlike any other known to mankind.
With 16% protein found in the human body, it's not an exaggeration to say that silk is like a second skin. Therefore, wearing silk clothing will give us... great benefits which few other fabrics can compare to.
Silk is also environmentally friendly and does not harm the environment.
Silk is not only used in the fashion industry but is also extremely useful in medicine. Because silk is made from protein and is harmless to the body and the environment, it is used in medicine, specifically in surgery, because it does not cause side effects and actively supports patients by preventing infection or allergies.
The silk industry accounts for only about 0.21% of the global fashion market share annually. Of this, synthetic fibers make up the largest share at approximately 651%, followed by cotton at around 251%, with the remainder being other types of fibers. This further explains why silk is so expensive.
By now you probably understand why silk is so expensive, right? If someone tells you, "I found a piece of silk at a cheap price," you shouldn't believe them. There are no cheap silk products, for all the reasons mentioned above.
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