Lady Sloth Silk-- real, or not?

[shuucreme]

Hi guys, I was wondering if the dresses that Lady Sloth bills as "silk" are really silk?

Comments

[___ifwinterends]

Somebody who knows for sure will probably answer but just as a starter reply...if it's cheap it's probably not silk. Is it the cherubin dress? If I Googled right it's about 160 dollars...that seems really cheap for silk even if it's only the skirt part. It does say 100% silk, though....maybe the best thing would be to take it to a dry cleaners or seamstress and ask, they would know.

[shuucreme]

It's not the cherubin dress, it's actually a dress that they never seemed to mass market (or it's an older dress) that I purchased from lady sloth on the comm sales. Would a seamstress be able to tell? There are good fakes out there, nowadays, though I guess people experienced in handling silk may be able to have a guess.

[clarice]

The cherubim fabric used for that skirt is 16 momme 100% silk and pretty easy to find for sale. The lighter weight Chinese silk prints are not expensive. Silk isn't necessarily more expensive that decent quality cotton, especially given that you get the benefit of exchange rates when buying out of China that you don't get buying out of Japan or US/Europe where a lot of the cotton prints retail.

[shuucreme]

Cool! Do you have a source for that? Or are you just able to tell by feel?

[shuganei]

I don't know but judging from other materials they use, it's not a real silk.

[shuucreme]

But some of the other materials are not billed as silk anyway?

[shuganei]

I'd say it's artificial silk at most. My friend has a dress from LS and the material (non-silk) feels
cheap and it rolled into small balls all over.

[petite_rosalie]

Real silk such as charmeuse, satin, and light crepe costs about 10-15$ a yard. Textured silks such as jacquard and brocades and range from 15$ a yard to hundreds of dollars. The highest quality silks such as duchesse satin will cost you about 100$ per yard and are only used in very fine evening gowns and, as you may imagine, used by designers. In short, I do believe that the dress is likely to be made with real silk of lower quality compared to the finest imported silks.

[shuucreme]

Interesting! How did you come to that conclusion? I understand that you mean that it's expensive, but how does that prove it's silk?

[petite_rosalie]

I'm just going on by the price of silk fabric per yard compared to her silk dresses and reviewing the photos of them. It's a best guess and theoretical. Based upon my knowledge as a seamstress and fashion design student I can guess that most likely the dress is made from real silk. Her photos and doing the math of price per yard of silk is the only evidence I have available.

[___ifwinterends]

Going by your pricing (and I didn't know lower quality silk was that cheap) I guess it's possible but when you think about it the price doesn't really mean much, right? I mean brand dresses are usually made of nothing but cotton and some chemical lace yet cost 250 bucks so even with just cotton and lace an indies designer charging 150 bucks would sound about right. It's with that conclusion that I thought the dress was a bit cheap to be silk...I mean even with just cotton an indies designer can sell a dress for 150 bucks so if it were a more expensive fabric I feel like it would be a lot more...just my guess of course, I don't think anyone can know for sure since pricing of clothing is so subjective. Chanel and other designers clothes really don't mirror the cost to make them, either..

[gurliebot]

Post a picture?
There's always the possibility that it could be a blend, or that the fabric was bought in bulk. I'm not too sure as to why you would be in doubt. Not all silks feel the same, just like polyester or cotton.

(Burn it? Really?)

[obsixwi]

Burning a fabric allows you to tell if it's synthetic or natural fibers. Synthetics melt, while natural fibers do not. Someone who is experienced in textiles could even tell you the specific fibers or blends by the way it burns.

[shuucreme]

I know this, and as stated in the post, "I honestly don't want to burn my relatively expensive (but cheap for silk) dress!" I don't want to damage it in anyway, regardless of it's origins, which is why I'm asking for alternate methods or if someone just knows the answer (because my research hasn't turned up anything).

(EDIT:, just read your comment in context, sorry if it was directed at the above poster--just a bit annoyed at everyone saying to do the burn test.)

[obsixwi]

Ah, yes it was (because it seemed they were confused why you would burn it). It seems like you've got it figured out, though!

[ext_2447063]

If you have a thread or something similar of the fabric, you can tell by lighting it. If it smells like hair or horn it's silk (it doesn't say anything about the quality of that silk though).