Top 5 Asian Textiles: May 3, 2024

It’s Day 12 of my Spring Challenge!

As a reminder, this challenge means that either you get an email in your inbox 5 times per week until May 31st (which means I get a set of luxurious, vintage jammies) OR I have to donate $5 to a charity I hate for every week that I miss the goal.

Series #3: Top 5 Asian Textiles.

Today’s pick: Golden Silk from Cambodia

I don’t quite know where to start this story of golden silk from Cambodia.

All parts of it are fascinating: from the sheen, richer than raw silk, to how it’s part of the Cambodian ecosystem, the worms having adapted to the weather. The patterns on it are uniquely Cambodian as well and they emerge by dyeing the silk in hôl/Cambodian ikat, often in a diamond motif.

The silk is delicate and hard to produce, with its delicacy requiring manual labor vs mechanization, and producing a yield 15 times less than regular white silk.

Due to its labor-intensive process and the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, the silk is now in decline. As it was seen as a marker of elite status, consumers stopped purchasing the material out of fear - and artisans stopped producing it, leading to a deep loss in generational knowledge.

However, to end on a slightly brighter note, the silk is slowly making a comeback. Check out Golden Silk, founded in 2002 to bring back the art of weaving a Cambodian legacy!

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xoxo,

Simran