I ask this because I can remember my ex-wife buying a silk blouse around 20 years ago-she paid about $100.00! Now, you can buy all kinds of clothing (shirts, pants, shorts) made of silk, very cheaply. I know that silk is made by a worm, raised in China, and there is a lot of hand labor involved. But why is it so inexpensive now? did the chinese drastically increase their production? Or is there another reason? Is it possible that what is labelled “silk” is in fact a much cheaper synthetic? The Chinese were caught doing this with cashmere-they were labelling sweaters as 100% cashemere, when in fact they were blends of cashemere and other (cheaper) fibers. WHO checks up on this?
bump
I’ve wondered about this, too. I’m pretty sure it’s real silk, not synthetic, because I just don’t think there’s a synthetic that good yet.
I did find something on this page, at the bottom:
http://www.bugbios.com/ced1/seric.html
It mentions that world silk production has doubled in the last 30 years. This may partly be because more countries are producing silk now. This page mentions that Brazil is now the 6th largest producer of silk.
http://www.animal.uq.edu.au/staff/jgd/silk_and_silkworm_production.htm
So maybe there’s more silk being produced, and ironically less silk being used in this country. Maybe one of our textile experts can give us an answer.