What Is Vegan Silk?

I love silk. It’s soft, smooth, lustrous, and velvety. Making traditional silk is a labor intensive process - raising the silk worms (they’re really caterpillars), harvesting the cocoons, extracting the thread of the cocoon, dying, and spinning. It’s one of the main reasons silk is so expensive.

DRESS MADE WITH MULBERRY SILK

The problem with traditional silk is that it is made by boiling the cocoons, killing the critter inside. Other issues include being very delicate and soft so threads break easily, and finished garments pill quickly and easily.

Naturally, it was the cost of silk (and not the ethical issues) that inspired chemists and inventors to try and create an alternative. The earliest ‘vegan silk’ created was originally called “Artificial Silk” it was made from chemically processed cellulose fibers (mostly wood). This means that these fibers are a combination of both natural fibers, as well as synthetic. It combines the best of both worlds, as these fibers are strong like synthetics and breathable like natural fibers.

DETAIL OF DRESS MADE FROM BAMBOO

Eventually renamed Rayon, combining the words “ray” (sun) with “on” (cotton), Rayon pretty much includes Modal, Lyocell (Tencel), and Microfiber, as well as Viscose. While these were once made from wood, making it unsustainable, modern Vegan Silks come from renewable resources, like Bamboo and Eucalyptus. These Vegan Silks are extremely versatile: they blend well with other fibers, have an excellent color retention, are inexpensive, stronger than traditional silk, breath well, drape better, and are light weight. 

There are some drawbacks; these usually require dry-cleaning because the fabric is weak when wet (I hand wash my projects and use a warm iron, and they always look lovely).

DETAIL OF VISCOSE DRESS

These fibers are perfect for crochet and knitting garments like blouses, dresses, and trousers. It is best to use bamboo needles when knitting because these fibers are so shiny and slippery. Vegan silk threads and yarns are usually well spun so that they do not split or pill, are priced right for large projects, and are easy to use. Projects work up quickly and always look and wear beautifully. EDIT: There’s no such thing as Vegan Traditional Silk (often called Ahimsa Silk). Ahimsa silk is silk made from cocoons that have hatched. It still results in dead moths. These moths have been bred for their silk, so when they emerge their wings are deformed and are too heavy to fly. They are destroyed after laying eggs, either by being killed by humans, or by being scattered outdoors to be eaten by birds. The moths will also often be destroyed to test for illnesses. If they test positive for various illnesses, the eggs are destroyed as well. Plant silks are often called Vegan Silk because they really are the only cruelty free option for silk-like textiles.