Every time I go to Menlo Park Mall, I would visit my favorite item, to see, to touch, to feel its perfection. It’s hanging proudly in Nordstrom, an expensive store. A silk long sleeved pajamas with matching silk pants, which I can’t afford. It’s been there for quite a while, but last weekend, it’s gone. I guess somebody bought it, or the store finally decided to retire it and put something else on display.
Since I can’t have it, I’ve so far found many good reasons not to have it. When the fox cannot reach the grapes, the grapes must be sour. Silk is basically the saliva of the silk worms that eventually become the silk strands. I know. The texture is smooth, the color is naturally glossy. Just feel it on your skin, it is heaven. But the beauty has its humble beginning–the drooling of the worms. By not wearing a silk pajamas, I know I am not wrapping myself up in some creature’s spits.
The second reason is that it is environmentally unfriendly. Two mulberry trees are hardly enough to produce one blouse. And the whole body pajamas used twice the silk of a blouse. As a conscientious citizen of the world, I don’t want to burden the environment like that.
Silk brings a lot of memories. One thing I have too much is nostalgia. It plagues me and will not leave me alone; it entices me to look back rather than looking forward; it shows up more conspicuous whenever I face difficulties or become sick. Nostalgia is as alluring as the silk.
When I was young in a boarding high school, I had a friend who’s mother worked in a local silk factory. During the production of silk, there are always certain parts of silk that’s flawed in the weaving process, which were later identified and sold in heavy discount to the employees. She could often carry back to school pieces of silk of various sizes, colors, and quality. We made cushions, little silk bags, coin purses, decorations. We had such a good time. I was very bad with needlework, and silk is not the easiest material to work with. Other people in the dorm often had to redo what I had sewed. I was scolded and told to improve myself, but I enjoyed it all the same.
Haoyan Do 
This was a pleasure to read, it flowed so well and gave me connection. I wouldn’t wear silk either.
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Thanks for the compliment. Yes, same here, no silk product. It looks like just a piece of clothe, but the material behind it is burdensome to the environment, in addition to the laborious process to make it.
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Silkworms are boiled alive in their cocoons. That’s extreme torture!
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Yes, that’s insect cruelty that animal lovers have forgotten to address.
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Wow, it’s incredible how they can make such cool fashionable things materialize out of worm protein.
In most cases, they use “animal skin” or the fur or the hide of the animal to make coats, shoes etc, but the case of the silkworm is rather interesting lol. But hopefully they can find an alternative if it’s going to be better for the environment.
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LOL. One silk worm eat 3.5 pound of mulberry leaves (it’s a big eater and always hungry) and produce 1 silk thread about 8gram. It costs a lot of mulberry leaves to produce just one piece of silk garment.
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Haha, WHOA that really puts it into perspective. That’s so many mulberry tress and worms + time that have to be sacrificed just to produce the luxary of silk 😄😄.
It’s ironically an ordeal that would never cross the mind of most people given how harmless silk products seem to be at first look lol
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Interesting read Haoyando. Maybe you get better options in the future.
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Great piece. Ive never heard ‘When the fox cannot reach the grapes, the grapes must be sour’ before. Such a good quote
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Thank you! LOL.
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I remember feeling pained in school about the silkworms…that didn’t stop me though from wearing silk as an adult…the lure of the store overpowered the noble instinct..
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Some of my classmates loved to raise the silkworms, which was one of the school projects that one could participate in, but I was not very interested in that. Yes, I love silk too.
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