Ahimsa Silk - a special and luxury fabric

von Julia Leifert

One time ago silk was one oft he most luxury fabrics in the world, a precious material only affordable for privileged and wealthy people. Now silk can be found almost everywhere, because of the silkworm breeding. Conventionally there are tow types of silk on the marked. Tussah and Mulberry silk - named by trees, the food of the animals. Mulberry silk is the most common type. When it’s time the worm builds a cocoon with a thin thread of silk around its body. One tread can have a length of 3000 meters. The goal is to win this silk tread without having it been destroyed, to get a pure, clean and fine surface oft he silk fabric. So while the worms are pupated in the cocoon the usually get killed, before they are ready to slip out oft he cocoon, by boiling in hot water.

We love the luxury touch of silk, the feeling on the skin. But we also love animals and we don’t want them to suffer or get killed for any, and especially a luxury product. So we deiced to use only Ahimsa silk, also known as Peace Silk for our products. The word „Ahimsa“ is Sanskrit and means „nonviolence“ – one of the most important principles in Buddhism.

At the production of Ahimsa Silk the „destroyed“ threat will be picked up, after the butterfly slips natural out of the cocoon. Therefore it has to cut the cocoon with its biting tools. After picking it up the cocoons are soaked in hot water to solve the clue and make it ready for processing.

Ahimsa silk is more expensive than conventional silk, because of the additional cost of time and effort to get a product. often produced by hand and does not have the same uniformity like Mulberry silk, because oft he destroyed threats. It is more like wild grown silk, with a more visible texture. This is not a lack of quality; it shows it natural origin and makes every garment to a special, unique piece.