Silk vs. Satin: What’s the Difference?
Many people wonder what the difference between silk and satin is. Are they the same? Short answer: no, they are very different!
To put it simply, it’s an apples and oranges comparison.
Silk refers to the material — an “ingredient.”
Satin refers to a type of fabric weave, how the fibres are bonded or woven together. Herringbone, twill, satin, and velvet are all a type of weave.
Weave gives you a clue how the fabric will behave. Whether it will move with you and drape softly against your body (satin) or provide more shape (twill or jacquard, for example).
If we use baking with fruit as an example, you need your main ingredient, such as:
blackberries, blueberries, apples, or strawberries.
For the sake of the example, let these describe your fabrics, such as cotton, polyester, linen or silk.
From this fruit (your fabric), you can make things like pie, fruit salad, muffins, or crumble (getting hungry yet?)
These describe your weave, such as twill, jacquard, satin or velvet.
In short, you need both a material and a weave to make your muffins!
Many are surprised when they learn that velvet is not a fabric, but a weave.
You can have rayon velvet or silk velvet, to name a few. This goes for silk satin or polyester satin. Though they are the same weave, they are made from very different fibres and will behave very differently.
Many clothings brands will sell satin dresses in the hopes that their customer will assume it’s silk. Price used to be a good indicator of materials used, but not as much anymore.
If materials matter to you, the only way to know for sure is to check the label.
I make made to order silk dresses at jacobajane.com
