The "Queen of Fibers" —— Types of Silk and Methods for Identifying It by Hand.
Silk clothing is highly sought after by many people for its characteristics of being thin, light and cool. It is especially practical in the sweltering midsummer and is known as the "queen of fibers". However, silk is generally quite expensive. As a result, artificial silk made from chemical fiber filaments has emerged on the market. Its main raw material is polyester fiber (polyester), and some also use regenerated cellulose such as viscose. So, how can we tell whether silk is genuine or fake? Let's follow Xiao Xi to learn a few tricks!
What Exactly is Silk?
Silk generally refers to silk produced by silkworms, including mulberry silk, tussah silk, castor silk, cassava silk, etc., and is called the "queen of fibers". Silk belongs to protein fibers. Silk fibroin contains 18 kinds of amino acids beneficial to the human body, which can help the skin maintain the metabolism of the surface lipid film. Therefore, it can keep the skin moisturized and smooth, so silk clothing is extremely popular among people.
Common Silk Fabrics
There are 14 major categories and 43 minor categories of silk fabrics, roughly including habotai, taffeta, crepe de chine, heavy crepe, crinkled crepe, georgette, organza, double georgette, heavy georgette, brocade, sangbo satin, plain crepe satin, stretch plain crepe satin, warp-knitted fabrics, etc. In the fabric dyeing and finishing process, it all relies on high-tech production processes and uses environmentally friendly dyes. The color fastness reaches 3 - 4.5 grades. It allows people to appreciate the unique color beauty of silk fabrics while maintaining the nutrition and naturalness of silk fabrics. During the fabric treatment process, different degrees of preshrinking treatment are also carried out to ensure that the shrinkage rate of the finished garments made from the fabrics is between 0.5% and 3%.
Silk fabrics are pure white woven silk fabrics made from mulberry silk. They are woven with a twill weave. According to the weight per square meter of the fabric, they are divided into thin and medium types. According to different post-processing methods, they are divided into dyed and printed types. It has a soft and smooth texture, a soft hand-feel, is light and has rich and colorful patterns. It is cool and comfortable to wear and is mainly used as the fabric for summer shirts, pajamas, dresses and headscarves, etc.
Five Tricks of "Looking, Touching, Burning, Pulling and Dissolving" to Identify the Authenticity
1. Looking
The surface of silk has a bright, clear and soft luster. The surface of artificial silk is bright but not soft. Although the luster of polyester silk fabrics is even, there are shiny spots or striped shiny threads. And the luster of nylon silk fabrics is rather poor, just like being coated with a layer of wax. Distinguishing their lusters can effectively help with judgment.
2. Touching
Silk feels soft, flowing and elastic. When gently rubbed, there is a silk chirping sound. When touched, it feels cool. Its silk threads are relatively dense. When grasped by hand, wrinkles will appear. The higher the purity and the greater the density of the silk, the better the hand-feel. Although artificial silk fabrics have undergone softening treatment and feel relatively soft, the fabric surface is dull. And chemical fiber fabrics have a bright and dazzling luster and feel rather stiff.
3. Burning
Pull out a bunch of silk yarns from the broken edge of the fabric and light them. Silk fibers burn slowly, curl up into a ball and give off an odor similar to that of burning hair. After burning, they can be easily crushed into powder by gently pressing. When polyester fibers burn, there is a sweet smell, and the residues are hard and black round beads. The hard lumps are not easy to crush. When cellulose fiber filaments such as viscose burn, there is a smell of burning paper, and the residues are a little grayish-white ash.
4. Pulling
Pull out several thin threads, moisten them, and then pull them hard from both ends. If they are easily broken at the wet part, it is rayon. If they are not necessarily broken at the wet part and the broken ends of the fibers are in the shape of uneven tufts of hair, it is silk.
5. Dissolving
"Dissolving" here means disinfection. We can use disinfectant for a dissolution test. If silk is put into the disinfectant, it will gradually be dissolved and disappear in three to five minutes.
Washing Methods
1. Washing by Hand
Silk clothing is made of delicate and health-care protein fibers, so it is not suitable to be washed among rough items or in a washing machine. We should immerse the clothes in cold water for 5 - 10 minutes, and gently rub and scrub them with special silk detergents, low-foaming synthetic laundry powder or neutral soap. If it is to wash small pieces of fabric like silk scarves, shampoo can also be used. For colored silk clothing, just rinse it repeatedly in clean water.
2. Drying
Silk clothing is not suitable to be dried in the sun after washing, nor is it suitable to be dried by a dryer with heat. Generally, it should be dried in a cool and ventilated place, because the ultraviolet rays in the sun can easily cause silk fabrics to turn yellow, fade and age. After washing, silk clothing is also not suitable to be wrung to remove water. It should be gently shaken out and spread out with the reverse side facing out to dry. Iron or shake it flat when it is 70% dry.
3. Ironing
The anti-wrinkle performance of silk clothing is slightly worse than that of chemical fiber products. So, "if it doesn't wrinkle, it's not real silk". If the clothes wrinkle after washing, they need to be ironed to make them straight, flowing and beautiful. When ironing, hang the clothes until they are 70% dry, then evenly spray clear water in a mist, wait for 3 - 5 minutes and then iron. The temperature should be controlled below 150 °C, and pay attention that the iron should not directly touch the silk surface to avoid producing a shiny spot.
4. Storage
Thin underwear, shirts, pants, skirts, pajamas, etc. should be washed clean and ironed dry before being stored. For autumn and winter clothes, coat surfaces, Hanfu, cheongsams, etc. that are inconvenient to take apart and wash, they should be cleaned by dry cleaning and ironed flat to prevent mildew and moth infestation. Ironing can also play a role in sterilization and insect killing. In addition, it should be noted that the boxes and cabinets for storing clothes should be kept clean and sealed as well as possible to prevent dust pollution.
Precautions for Maintenance
1. Wash by hand below 30 degrees Celsius and turn the clothes inside out. It is recommended to drip a few drops of fragrant vinegar and soak them for a while. In this way, the washed silk clothes will be soft and smooth.
2. It is not suitable to use alkaline detergents and soaps for washing.
3. Silk clothes that are sweaty should be washed immediately.
4. Do not hang silk clothes on hard metal hooks to prevent damage to the silk surface.
5. Do not put mothballs when storing, otherwise the clothes will easily become brittle.
6. The ironing temperature should be preferably 100 degrees Celsius, and it is best to put a lining cloth underneath.
Silk products are expensive and very comfortable to touch the skin. Therefore, more attention should be paid to their purchase, washing and maintenance. Everyone must remember the above content and take good care of them!