Day 307 June 7, 2011

Japanese silk kimono detail

Silk.  All right, I'll tell you.  Silk really is my favourite.  Yesterday I said that silk and cotton were my favourite fibres, but today I am going to be totally honest.  It's silk.  Silk is the one.  Perhaps I felt like I'd be too elitist if I proclaimed that silk was my favourite.  Today I realize that honesty is the only way to go.

Silk feels like no other fibre.  Silk chiffon is so smooth and so thin that it floats away like a cloud.  Raw silk is rough and heavy in feel but not too heavy to wear as a comfortable garment.  I wear silk long underwear in the winter and it is instrumental in keeping my little body warm and snug in our Canadian winters.  Silk can be preposterous in its splendour and sumptuousness.  Silk is wildly luxurious.  Silk holds colour like no other fabric.

For a while in my twenties when I lived in San Francisco, I made batiked silk scarves and batiked cotton clothing.  I just did a bit of research and learned that beyond being used for garments silk is also used for medical sutures and prosthetic arteries.  Okay, call me crazy but I want to thank all the silk worms that produce this amazing filament and of course thank the Chinese people who discovered how to use these silkworm filaments.  Hallelujah for silk.