Professional guide

Silk in a sustainable perspective

Silk is the ultimate luxury raw material and fibre. There are fantastic sustainable sides to silk, but there are animal treatment issues. Thus: Nothing is easy.

The raising of domesticated silkworms and the life of wild silkworms is, by nature, sustainable. Silk fabric when produced by weavers on handlooms has a near zero energy footprint and satisfies most of the guidelines for sustainable fabric production.

A concern has been: Commercial silk kills the silkworm. Conventional silk is made by boiling the intact cocoons and unwinding the single silk strand onto reels. Only a few moths are allowed to emerge to continue the population of silkworms. The rest are killed by being boiled in their cocoons. This is done so the silk fibers are not broken and can be reeled off in a continuous strand.  

Only a few moths are allowed to emerge to continue the population of silkworms

"Peace Silk" lets the silkworm live out its full life cycle. "Peace silk", also known as "vegetarian silk" is raised and processed differently. The silk can still be spun like other fibers if the moths are allowed to emerge, but the quality of the silk is not as good, and designers who want top of the line quality shy away from Peace silk.

Tussah is naturally "Peace Silk". Tussah, or wild silk, is made by gathering cocoons from the wild after the moths have emerged, so it is also vegetarian.