Silk is one of the oldest textiles in the world andits natural beauty

Tag : Fabric Finish
Silk is one of the oldest textiles in the world andits natural beauty has ensured it remains synonymous with luxury,still highly prized in sumptuous home furnishings and lustrousfashion garments today. The earliest fragments of silk unearthed inChina are thought to pre-date 3000BC and the Chinese preciouslyguarded the secret of silk production for centuries with the threatof execution deterring anyone from divulging its mystery.

Although too late to be its genuine origin, the legend of thediscovery of silk in 2640BC by Lei Zi, the wife of Emperor HuangDi, is a magical tale. The invention of the weaving loom has alsobeen attributed to her, The Lady of the Silkworm. The story tellsthat whilst walking in her garden and drinking tea, a silk cocoonfell into her cup. When she retrieved it, the cocoon unwound into afine thread of silk.

Around 200 BC Chinese immigrants reputedly brought silk worms toKorea and around 550 AD, two Nestorian monks brought silkworm eggsto the court of Emperor Justinian in Rome by hiding them in theirhollowed staffs. When silk finally made its way from China into thewider world it was even more valuable than gold. Traders brought itacross Asia to Europe along a route which became known as the SilkRoad and people wore fragments on their clothes like jewellery.