Caring for your Silk

Silk is a luxurious natural fibre, both delicate and strong at the same time. If properly cared for, your Fabiia silk products will look as wonderful and give you years of warm and nurturing comfort. It is recommended to dry clean all silk products that include silk cushion covers, silk bedspreads, silk bed runners and our silk fabrics. However on smaller stains you can spot clean as needed. For spot cleaning, we recommend you use ‘Tenestar’ silk washing agent. This is a specialist silk washing agent for pure silk and blended silk fabrics to keep the silk looking its best. Tenestar is formulated to complement the silk fibre and is known to clean gently, thoroughly, and economically. It is based on natural resources and is therefore especially skin-friendly.

Our Value Formula

At Fabiia we are so passionate about our silks and everything that bears the Fabiia label that we believe in only using the finest quality 100% pure mulberry silks available on this planet. We go to great lengths to ensure that we only source the finest quality silk yarns .Every product is designed by us in-house and manufactured under strict quality control measures. Nurtured carefully, each Fabiia product is lovingly crafted and designed to last a lifetime and not just a season, thus making Fabiia products the best value money can buy.

Silk and Its History

Silk is a natural proteinfibresome forms of which can be woven into textilesThe best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberrysilkworm reared in captivity called sericulture. The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles thus producing different colours.

China

Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, possibly as early as 6000 BC and definitely by 3000 BC. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Lei Zu (Hsi-Ling-Shih, Lei-Tzu). Silks were originally reserved for the Kings of China for their own use and gifts to others, but spread gradually through Chinese culture and trade both geographically and socially, and then to many regions of Asia. Silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants because of its texture and luster. Silk was in great demand, and became a staple of pre-industrial international trade . In July 2007, archeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiangxi province, are dated to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, roughly 2,500 years ago.^[1] Although historians have suspected a long history of a formative textile industry in ancient China, this find of silk textiles employing "complicated techniques" of weaving and dyeing provides direct and concrete evidence for silks dating before the Mawangdui-discovery and other silks dating to the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).^[1]

The first evidence of the silk trade is the finding of silk in the hair of an Egyptian mummy of the 21st dynasty, c.1070 BC [2]. Ultimately the silk trade reached as far as the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. This trade was so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia has become known as the Silk Road.

The Emperors of China strove to keep knowledge of sericulture secret to maintain the Chinese monopoly. Nonetheless sericulture reached Korea around 200 BC, about the first half of the 1st century AD had reached ancient Khotan ^[2], and by AD 300 the practice had been established in India.

India is the largest consumer of silk in the world. Silk, known as Pattu in southern parts of India and Resham in Hindi/Urdu (from Persian), has a long history in India. Recent archaeological discoveries in Harappa and Chanhu-daro suggest that sericulture, employing wild silk threads from native silkworm species, existed in South Asia during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization, roughly contemporaneous with the earliest known silk use in China. The tradition of wearing silk saris in marriages by the brides is followed in southern parts of India. Silk is worn by Indians as a symbol of royalty while attending functions and during festivals. Historically silk was used by the upper classes, while cotton was used by the poorer classes. The silk is traditionally hand-woven and hand-dyed and usually also has silver threads woven into the cloth. Most of this silk is used to make saris. The saris usually are very expensive and vibrant in color. Garments made from silk form an integral part of Indian weddings and other celebrations. In the northeastern state of Assam, three different types of silk are produced, collectively called Assam silk: Muga, Eri and Pat silk. Muga, the golden silk, and Eri are produced by silkworms that are native only to Assam. The heritage of silk rearing and weaving is very old and continues today especially with the production of Muga and Pat riha and mekhela chador, the three-piece silk saris woven with traditional motifs. Mysore Silk Saris, which are known for their soft texture, is known to last a lifetime if carefully maintained.