The grade allows us to measure the quality of the silk using different criteria which are:

Choosing the best cocoons

The length of the wires

The thickness of the wires

The grades are divided into 3 letters, A, B and C. A being the best quality, C being the lowest. Each grade has sub-grades which are specified in numbers, for example for grade A, there are grades A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A and the same is true for the letter B and the letter C.

Grade 6A designates the best possible and existing silk, so it is this one which will have the most expensive price.

But then what will differentiate the best grades from the worst?

The higher the grade, the softer, stronger and more durable the fabric will be, so the more you pay, the more commendable your purchase will be because it will last you more and more years, if it is well treated of course.

Now let us return to the criteria stated previously.
You must be wondering, "How do these criteria change the quality of the silk?"

So we will explain them to you one by one.

The better the cocoon, the better the threads will be. It is obvious that a cocoon in better condition requires a longer thread in order to obtain better silk, and as you now know, it is necessary to have the longest threads for this.

You should also know that the total length of a wire can vary between 2500 and 3500 meters. However, only the most central thread can be made in one go and this is between 1000 and 1500 meters , hence the importance of taking the best cocoons.

As explained above, it is important to have long threads in order to obtain a superior quality silk. Having long, smooth threads makes weaving easier, therefore making it more beautiful and resistant, this also avoids small threads that test the fabric, proof of inferior quality, and that it lasts you several years without fearing anything.

In addition to the length, the thickness of the threads will optimize the durability of the products. Because the threads may be long and well woven, the thickness of a thread is the primary criterion in order to obtain maximum resistance. Moreover, it is known that silk, more particularly spider silk, is 5 times stronger than steel and 3 times stronger than Kevlar at equal thickness.

After the grades, there are the mommes. Mommes are an ancestral unit of measurement that allows to measure the weight of the silk, therefore the thickness of the threads, per square meter. Mommes will help people looking for a silk product, to know if it will be thick and partly of quality (because the quality depends essentially on the grade).
Although the quality of silk depends on the grade criteria, the momme helps us to get an idea of ​​the quality of the product at the time. The quantity of the number of mommes varies between 6 and 30 mommes.

Like all globalized products, they are manufactured in different countries and therefore the price of labor varies. Although “made in China” is synonymous with low quality, for silk it will be the opposite, at least for the raw material. Silk is a material born in China and grown there, so it is natural and synonymous with quality to obtain silk from this country. Some companies in China respect labor ethics and rights but unfortunately not all. This is why several companies, such as in France, will order their raw material in China and export it to France in order to transform the material into a quality product. At the same time, since labor in France is more expensive, so are the products.

Obviously, the price varies depending on the brand. If you choose a product from a renowned brand, the product will necessarily be expensive, even very expensive. However, it is rare that the product is not exceptional when it comes to a renowned brand, because it is produced with remarkable craftsmanship, handcrafted with high-intensity colors, as well as with superior and unique materials.

Compliance with regulations has a large share of responsibility in the final price. These are both environmental and social regulations.

It makes sense that a less developed country than France offers less expensive labor. But why is it less expensive? Quite simply because the regulations are not respected because it is these standards that increase prices.

For example, for environmental regulations:

If there is a maximum quantity to be respected at the level of the production of the material but it is not, this will reduce the notion of rarity and therefore lower the price. However, acting in this way represents intensive breeding and therefore a lack of respect for animal life (because the silk comes from an animal) and certain values.

For social regulations:

We recall that some countries, mostly less developed, absolutely do not respect labor rights and force people to work dozens of hours without stopping or people who are not of the required age to work and even less in poor conditions. These labor forces are certainly cheap, but do not take human life into consideration.

In order to avoid being cheated and spending a certain amount of money on a product that is not even worth it, therefore artificial, we are going to reveal different techniques to differentiate real silk from fake.

Silk has a high reflective quality due to the caterpillar's slime which reflects light in a particular way, so it shines particularly well. Be careful, wild silk shines less because it is not shiny.

Since it is a material exclusively produced by a caterpillar, there can often be irregularities because the silk is never perfectly smooth, unlike machines which only always reproduce the same gesture.

Static electricity, yes silk creates much less static electricity than synthetic.

The strength of silk is extremely strong, so if it is real and of good quality, you must have a very hard time tearing the fabric.

Finally, the fire test, a natural silk thread does not burn, it burns by the flame and instantly turns into ash giving off a smell of burnt hair. Conversely, a synthetic silk thread burns, melts, gives off black smoke and a strong smell.

It is for all these very important reasons that silk has an expensive price but especially the products made with this superb material.