How do I recognise real silk?
The price
The price is the easiest way to find out whether your silk product is real, quality has its price. In comparison to synthetical fibres silk will always be relatively expensive. You normally pay ten times the amount for real silk than you would for artificial fabrics. The reasons for that are the time-consuming production process and the high quality standards.
Haptic, audible and visual perception
You can identify silk with your senses. Fabrics made of 100% silk are soft, sleek and waxy. If you can confirm these characteristics while touching the fabric, it is probably real silk. Another way to find out if it is real silk is to move or stretch the fabric. Real silk makes an unmistakable sound. The so called "scream of silk" reminds of walking on freshly fallen snow. The triangular prism-shaped structure of silk fibre breaks the light in different angles and gives it a multicoloured shine. Artificial silk looks rigid and stiff.
Firing sample
An explicit and fast method to proof the the realness of your silk product is the firing sample. For this you need a thread of the fabric that you want to examine. When lighting the thread, you should be able to observe the following: Thread is fire-resistant; Smell reminds of burnt hair; Residues are not easy to grind. All these characteristics guarantee that your product is most likely to be real silk. This method is difficult to carry out, since it is not easy to dismantle a single thread from the textile.