To see things with one's own eyes, to know them not only from hearsay or stories, this is a natural human desire. While building our Silky Gang brand, I always personally get to know and meet everyone who helps us along the way, where at the end we can hold our silk scarf in our hands. Since childhood, I liked books and movies in the style of "how to do it". A person will understand much better how much skill and work are sometimes worth even ordinary things for us. What did the silk business teach me? That the quality of material and supplier is the key ingredient to get an extraordinary product. What good is a perfectly drawn pattern if you don't choose the right fabric and printing method. Those who have followed our journey from the beginning know that our first stop was Great Britain, where we printed for the first year and a half. We were very happy in a small family printing house that printed for the biggest English fashion houses. But Brexit came and we, in order to keep the company running smoothly, started looking for a new supplier directly on the old continent. If we wanted, in accordance with the Silky Gang brand philosophy, to be as local as possible, to stay in Europe, there were only two locations available. French Lyon and Italian Como. Two historically oldest centers of production of silk fabrics. In deciding where to turn, my inner set came into play. I love Italy, its architecture, gastronomy and people. And so the six-month search for the right supplier began.
In the company, we were piled up with samples of fabrics and prints sent to us by the companies we approached. My initial, now I know that naive, idea that in such a famous textile region everyone will reproduce our patterns brilliantly, quickly took over. There was always some but that discouraged us from further cooperation. The main stumbling block was the color of the prints, the rendering of details and also the color of the reverse side. Because the heavier the weight of silk you use, the more difficult it is to print so that the reverse side is not too light. I admit that after four months I was starting to get quite desperate. Most of the companies eventually gave up on us, claiming that we are too demanding and that our designs cannot be printed any better. But I thought to myself, if we found great printers in England, they would definitely be there somewhere too. And then it came. More or less by accident, a small business "jumped out" at me during a Google search (maybe Google felt sorry for me and sent me the contact). They sent me their first prints and they weren't much. But when I had comments, they sent new and new versions, there were maybe 6 or 8 of them, until finally a beautiful set of our patterns arrived, in perfect color, with all the details, and most importantly, the beautifully dyed reverse side of the fabric. I understood that somewhere at Como we found a business partner who is the same perfectionist as us. And when they sent us a brand new product to test, organic silk twill, I completely fell in love. The shine, the softness even at a higher weight, the bright colors. And so our new, Italian chapter began.
I really wanted to go directly to the production and meet personally those who breathe silk life into our patterns. But along came Covid and we waited two years before we could enjoy a visit to the Como region with everything. And that happened this June. I am writing this article mainly because I am still full of emotions from what we were able to experience and see. You will find that 1000 km from your home there are people with the same passion for colors, fabrics and patterns. Even though it was the first time we met our suppliers in person, I felt like we had known each other for years. Probably the fact that they are a small family business with similar values to ours also played a significant role. We wanted to see and visit everything. Not only the place where our scarves are assembled and sent carefully packed to Prague, but also the journey of the silk fiber from the match of the fabric to the printing and final adjustments of the patterns and the sewing of our rolled edges. So the first path led to the spinning mill. The fabrics for our scarves are woven in the Giuseppe Cattaneo spinning mill, which was founded in 1892. It is still a family business. I was lucky that the owner himself guided us through the entire operation. To see with my own eyes how demanding the process is of spinning the right silk fibers into the giant "spools" that was put on looms made in Switzerland. Depending on the type of fibers and the number of bobbins, the type and density of weaving is set. The laundry specializes in weaving organic quality silk fabrics. It means that suppliers of raw silk fibers from China and Europe must have certified production in terms of ecology. Whether it is the cultivation of mulberry trees without the intervention of pesticides or the subsequent breeding of silkworms. The raw fiber then goes to a spinning mill in Italy, where they weave meters of silk in a gentle way, with reduced demands on water consumption, which can be marked with the GOTS or Global Organic Textile Standard certification. This is the strictest international biotextile certification. It ensures the ecological purity of production and the final product.
This silk does not undergo a bleaching process like standard silk fabrics. It is soft and bright to the touch. With the same weight of fabric, you can see the striking difference between non-organic and organic silk. For our scarves, we use the king of silks - silk twill or serge. You can recognize it by the fine one-sided spacing. This type of fabric stands out for its strength and flowability at the same time. And for those who like numbers, we print on Twill 14 and 16. The value means the so-called momme units. The higher the number, the better the silk. Habotai 8 -10, Crepe de chine 10 – 12 are commonly used. The higher grammage of silk and the method of weaving will ensure a higher durability of the material. But, for example, with heavier weight twill, it is much more difficult to ensure that the pattern is "printed" even on the reverse side during printing.
We are now reaching the finale of our discovery in Como. Visits to the silk printer. Photography was strictly prohibited throughout the factory. I was lucky that our scarves were in production, so I was able to take at least a few shots. Then I learned that to protect the copyright of the brands that print their products here, you are not allowed to take photo documentation during your visit. When I asked for which companies are printed here, names such as Gucci, Dolce Gabana, Valentino, Prada or Louis Vuitton began to appear. This reassured me that our scarf patterns are indeed in good hands. The printing machines they use here have the poetic name Mona Lisa. They are such a "rolls royce" of printing, which is produced by an Italian brand, originally oriented towards the screen printing method. It is currently only minimally used for printing on silk in Como. Unlike digital printing, screen printing does not allow the use of such a varied palette of colors and color gradients. And so these former masters of screen printing threw themselves into the development of digital printers that would combine the perfection of screen printing and the advantage of digital printing. And the Mona Lisa was born, on which our Silky gang scarves are also printed, which you then wrap around your neck.
For printing here, they use only ecological inks with the Oekotex certificate, which are produced in Japan. After the pattern is printed, it is followed by rinsing in a stabilizing bath and steaming. At the end, there is a fabric with extraordinary color and shine. From there, it travels to further production, to the hemming of finished scarves. There are several ways to hem scarves. The cheaper ones are mostly hemmed with a so-called entanglement stitch or straight stitching. The luxurious ones have the so-called rolled hemms. The seam is either made on a special sewing machine and the ends of the scarves are sewn by hand. Or is the entire quilt sewn by hand. We use the first method of rolling on our scarves, but after seeing with my own eyes how precisely the local seamstresses can hand roll, guess what I got excited about. It's a small Olympus when it comes to scarf edges. Of course, this also means a higher price of the final product, but as far as the appearance and the possibilities of making the coating are concerned, completely new horizons are opening up here. Two types of sealing are used. The so-called "French", when the roll is rolled into the face of the fabric (found e.g. in Hermés scarves) or classic, when the roll is rolled into the back of the scarf.
The final step before wrapping the scarf is the hand sewing of our woven label Silky gang Prague and the composition information, so that you have an organic silk scarf in your hand that has traveled a long way to get to you. During the visit to "our" printing house, they also presented us with a complete novelty, a printing machine of which there are only 10 in the world. And what can it do? So I'll keep it to myself for now. But you probably know that some new visions are already running through my head. I look forward to coming back to Como again. I was choosing new materials for our next projects, but we also visited a lot of beautiful cities and towns around the lake of the same name. I definitely recommend its visit. It is beautiful here, in many ways the atmosphere and architecture will remind you of the coast south of Rome - Amalfi. But here the climate is much more pleasant. Looking at blooming hydrangeas and yellow lemons against the background of a smurf blue sky, I said goodbye to this beautiful place and absorbed the inspiration of opulent and rich colors that shine even brighter in that Italian sun.
Ciao
Yours Martina SG
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