Silk duvet tips

Things to know

With so many silk duvets on the market it can be a bit of a task deciding which are worth purchasing and which ones are not. Listed below are a few things to look out for.

Mulberry silk

Always look for duvets filled with mulberry silk, and check the percentage of silk filling. Many suppliers will only use a small percentage of mulberry silk, and fill the remainder with cheaper short fibre silk. This brings the cost of the duvet down, but also eliminates the heat regulating and hypoallergenic properties of the duvet.

• Insist on long mulberry silk.
• Always check the percentage of mulberry silk in the duvet, don't settle for anything less than 100%.

The colour of the silk

Silk, being a natural product should have an ivory hue to it and be slightly iridescent. Many manufacturers bleach their silk to enhance it's look. Bleaching makes the silk look almost white and damages the natural properties of silk. Good silk filled duvets will almost always have a small zip stitched into the duvet, allowing easy inspection of the silk filling.

• Always ensure the silk is not bleached. Bleaching the silk will cause irreparable damage.
• Check for an inspection zip. If the duvet has no inspection zip which allows you to check the quality of the silk, one needs to question what the retailer is hiding.

Box stitched duvets

Silk duvets are able to aid heat regulation because of the way the silk has been layered. The layered silk is stitched between two casing sheets. The most effective way of doing this is to tack the silk in place. Box stitching creates a grid pattern and causes "cold spots" in the duvet. This undermines the duvets effectiveness as a heat regulator.

• Check the silk duvet has not been box stitched. Box stitching creates cold spots and limits the effectiveness of the silk duvet.
• Request a duvet layered by hand.

To the top