What's your Momme, or should I say what is a Momme?

By: Wendy Khalil

The other day, I was talking with our interns on what gives value to a fabric and why some fabrics are $29.00 per yard versus $200.00 per yard. When I was getting my presentation ready I found a sample on our floor that was $1,100.00 per yard retail. As I did my research on the ranges in pricing, I found another fabric that retailed for $1,700.00 per yard. They both happened to be silks, very beautiful silks.  As I proceeded to show everyone these silks a really good question came up: What decides the price of a silk? I did some research and came up with some very valuable information. I hope it helps you to sell silks and the value of silk to your client.

Momme (pronounced moe me) is the quality determination for silk, just like thread count is to cotton or worst count is to wool. Silk is measured by weight either by grams or by momme. 28 grams equals 1 ounce, or 8 momme equals 1 ounce.

Any silk with a momme under 20 is considered light weight. Medium weight is 20-28 momme and any silk above 28 is considered heavyweight. The more weight to the silk the longer lasting it will be. The price of silk is not only determined by the weight but by the type of silk as well. There are two types of silk: cultivated and wild.  

The cultivated is going to be the more expensive of the two types. It is more glassy and translucent and it will show more of a prismatic rainbow effect. The silk filaments are anywhere from 500-1000 meters long in one cocoon. Several of these silk filaments are grouped together in unraveling of the cocoon to make one continuous silk yarn. The wild silk, on the other hand, is essentially woven with short or broken threads. This silk is found inside of the cocoon.  It is rough to the touch, has a lower luster, and wears very quickly.

The more body weight to the silk, the longer lasting it will be. When the weight of the silk goes up, the price and durability do as well. If a silk feels stiff to the touch it is because a finish has been applied. The finish gives it an artificial hand. If you wash a silk that has had a finish applied, you wash the finish away. Did I say wash a silk? Generally all silks can be washed. The heavier ones can be washed repeatedly and will still maintain their hand and original beauty.

The largest suppliers of silk are China, India and Japan respectively. These three suppliers may be the largest but the finest silk fabrics come from Italy and France. I don’t think that comes as a surprise!

This is just a small amount of information on silks. I hope you find it useful. When you present a beautiful, expensive silk to your clients - the information above should help you justify the price to your client.