SILK-SATIN Fashion-forward fabric is luxurious

The sleek and shiny fabric is a stylish choice for the holiday season.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
A silk dress molds to your body. It pours through your fingers and falls into a sexy pile on the bedroom floor. It may wrinkle, and it doesn't take kindly to water, but that's common among highfalutin fabrics. Silk makes up for it in the drape. None other falls as regally from a seam.
Satin's richness comes from the shine. When woven from polyester or rayon, satin brings attention to bows, oomph to bridesmaid dresses, and twinkle to ballerina's toes.
Pure luxury
Now, take satin woven from silk. It's plush, delectable; the epitome of luxury. This season, fashion magazines and department stores are pairing rosy silk-satin blouses with velvet minis and wide fishnet hose. Tweed shifts are being accented with shiny roses, purselike clutch bags, and round-toed pumps fashioned from the shiny, high-class fabric.
And the Asian-inspired fashions you'll see would be impossible without the sheen silk-satin provides to floral mandarin tops and form-fitting dresses.
"It's really brash in a way, but it's very sleek, very sexy and very feminine," said Daniela Gilbert, textile fashion editor for Women's Wear Daily. "Nothing is more luxurious than silk-satin, the way it hugs you, how it feels on the skin."
The textile couldn't be more welcome, because we are yearning for sophistication to go with our bling-bling. Silk-satin's rediscovery is the first indication in at least five years that designers are emphasizing more than Juicy Couture-like style.
Silk-satin on parade
We got our first taste of silk-satin's newfound place in millennium fashion at the spring 2003 New York shows, when designers Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren featured satin dresses on the runway with bomber jackets. Silk-satins in bold yellows, oranges and lime-greens, trimmed with fur and paired with sleek stilettos or chunky boots, gave proof that this centuries-old fabric can hold its own in contemporary fashions.
Last winter, we saw silk-satin in sportswear. Gucci wowed us with a red satin corseted dress. Badgley Mischka, Stella McCartney, and Dolce & amp; Gabanna all did a version of the silk cargo that flew off racks after Alicia Keys wore a low-slung pair at February's Grammy ceremony. Slip dresses fashioned from the slinky fabric salsa-danced at clubs throughout the summer.
"The number-one color in silk-satin we are seeing is black, and fuchsia is not far behind," said Louis Mastrogiacomo, senior vice president for women's ready-to-wear at Macy's.
"And it's not just in the clothing, but also in the extras: the satin-finished embellishments, piping, ribbing. It's the most fashion-forward fabric out there now."
Why the resurgence of silk-satin now?
It's part of an overall attempt by designers to make us feel luxurious clad in the basics such as wool, 100 percent cotton, and linen. After all, one can now find pants woven from once-innovative synthetic microfibers at Target. These days, man-made fabrics have all the excitement of living in a prefabricated house in a cul-de-sac.
The second reason is that technology has made silk easier to obtain.
The process
Traditionally, after the silkworm spins its cocoon, the sericulturist -- or silk-maker -- unravels what can be a mile's worth of thread. Then, depending on the weave, he makes satin or silk. It takes thousands of silkworms to make a yard of the fabric.
These days, silkworms are being genetically modified to make more thread, says Chris Tastore, a co-director of engineering and design at Philadelphia University. Also, scientists are looking at ways to spin silk from goat's milk and products of other farm animals.
"Imagine if you could milk your goat and create silk fiber from that," Tastore said, his voice rising with excitement. "We are still a long way off, but it's possible. It's fascinating."
In the last 10 years, sericulturists also have developed coatings to make silk more easily washable. The latest is a coating that is added to the fibers and acts as a stain repellent. A stain will bead instead of setting, making silk easier to work with and wear.
Finally, textile-makers are figuring out how to dissolve silk fibers into polyesters and other microfibers, Tastore said. Right now this fabric production is experimental, but the resulting fabric would feel like soft, dry sand falling through your fingers.