The latest twist in silk

The colourful fabric glittering at Museum Siam all looks and feels different – knitted, woven, stretchy like spandex, as light and thin as chiffon, dyed in every imaginable hue – but it’s all the same material. It’s Thai silk.
“These 50 samples are prototypes from our ‘Modern Thai Silk’ project,” explains Dr Chanchai Sirikasemlert, director of the Thailand Textile Institute’s Technology Promotion Division. “You’re encouraged to touch, feel, stretch and even squeeze the silk. It’s durable and some pieces are even wrinkle-free, which makes them more suitable for daily use.”
These prototypes are going on display from February 18 to 20 at Premiere Vision in Paris, the world’s top fabrics fair. Fashion brands and designers will be there to scrutinise material from more than 700 weavers around the globe – and to buy en masse what suits their needs best.
Thai silk’s reputation for high quality and unique weaving techniques and patterns is well established, but its golden age has dimmed. Young urbanised Thais prefer more upscale kinds of labour to the traditional and arduous tasks of sericulture and weaving. Only our grandparents’ generation knows how to raise and harvest silkworms, few farmers tend mulberry trees to feed the worms, and even fewer people are earning a living wage from silk cultivation.

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The classical weaving patterns and techniques are very important to our culture, but how can we keep them alive when the number of silk farmers in Thailand is decreasing?” wonders Araya Ma-Inn, vice president of the government’s Office of Knowledge Management and Development. “The Modern Thai Silk project is designed to revive sericulture in Thailand by giving it a chance to reach the world fashion market.
 “We need creativity and innovation to differentiate our silk from that of other exporters, like China and Vietnam,” she says. “We can’t compete with them in terms of export volume or lower prices, so we have to promote the quality of Thai silk. We need to highlight its superb quality and expand the variety to serve the demands of the fashion world.”
Araya’s office, the Thailand Textile Institute and the Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture Development together devised the Modern Thai Silk scheme. Over the past year it has involved research and development in all areas of the industry, from raising the silkworms, reeling the thread, spinning the yarn and actually making the fabric to the design, dyeing, printing, marketing and consumer response.
Leading Thai fabric firms like Chul Thai Silk, Spun Silk World, Yong Udom Knitting and People’s Garment have contributed heavily to the project, keen to help restore Thai silk to a high value internationally.
“Fashion designers love silk, but they need material that suits the consumer’s needs and lifestyle,” says Chanchai. “According to Ornella Bignami and Daniele Aliverti of the Italian fashion studio Elementi Moda, traditional Thai silk has a limited range of colours, and our designers need to follow fashion colour trends better.
Dr Pajaree Kewcharoenwong, marketing executive at Spun Silk World, says the private firms have together developed a technique to produce four-colour “silk melange yarn”.
“This will allow us to produce more colours to match the designers’ needs,” she says. “We tried it with silk, spinning it with a greater twist. We also mixed silk thread with other natural fibres, like linen and cashmere, to maximise the yarn’s capability.”
“Some of these prototypes are cheaper than pure silk since we mixed silk with other fibres to make it more durable,” adds Chanchai, “but some might cost more than even pure silk because of the high-twist spinning technique, which consumes more thread.
“High-twisted silk is softer and lighter than traditional silk, though, so it would be an ideal choice for hot and humid weather.”
A national consumer survey found that Thais age 25 to 35 shun silk because it’s expensive, too delicate for daily use, too hard to take care of – and because they associate it more with elderly people.
Younger people tend to regard silk as “very special” – best reserved for formal occasions only – and also uncomfortable because it doesn’t “breathe”. That last complaint, says Chanchai, is basically unfair.
“Silk itself is a natural fibre that’s well known for its smoothness and absorbency, which makes it comfortable to wear in warm weather and while you’re active. But Thai dressmakers, unknowingly, have customarily used an adhesive lining fabric to give the clothes more shape, and that’s what leaves the clothing unable to ‘breathe’ and stiffer to the touch.
“So we want to change the image of Thai silk in our own country, turning clothing that’s formal and uncomfortable into a fabric that can ‘breathe’ and be worn every day. Hopefully the designers, both foreign and Thai, will check out our Modern Thai Silk and use it in their collections.”
Participating in Premiere Vision this month “is a big leap for us”, Chanchai says, “but it’s just the beginning.
“We would love Thais to use silk in their daily lives so that our forebears’ knowledge of sericulture doesn’t disappear. The textile industry in Thailand has cooperated with us and mustn’t forget what we’ve accomplished. Now that we’ve joined hands to create these wonderful pieces, it will be easier to create a much better silk product in the future.”

GET INVOLVED
Silk and textile entrepreneurs can contact the Product Development Centre at the Thailand Textile Institute at (02) 713 5492.