Four Types of Silk and What They Mean for Eco Fashion

Most people think silk is just silk. One fabric, fancy occasions, dry clean only. Turns out that's only partly true.

There are silks that come from worms fed on controlled diets in temperature-regulated rooms. There are silks from moths that eat whatever leaves they find in the forest. There are silks where the worm gets to live, and silks where it doesn't. 

Silks that shimmer gold without dye, silks that feel like butter, silks that have a bit of tooth to them.

And if you care about sustainable fabrics or ethical fashion, these differences aren't just trivia. They're the whole point.

Which Type of Silk Belongs in Your Sustainable Clothing Collection?

TuDuGu throws light!

1. The One Everyone Knows: Mulberry Silk

Mulberry silk is what most people mean when they say silk. It's what's in that blouse at the department store, that pillowcase promising better hair, those sustainable dresses with the four figure price tags.

Silkworms eat mulberry leaves exclusively. They live their whole short lives in controlled conditions, eating the same thing, producing cocoons of incredibly fine, uniform fibre. 

Then, before they can break out and turn into moths, the cocoons are boiled. This kills the worm but keeps the fibre intact in one long, unbroken thread. Sometimes over a kilometre long.

The result is smooth, lustrous, strong. It drapes beautifully. It takes dye well. It's what silk is supposed to look and feel like, if you go by conventional standards.

But here's what nobody mentions: those worms don't get to finish their life cycle. And if you're thinking about ethical fashion, that matters. Not to everyone, but to some people it matters a lot.

2. The Wild One: Tussar Silk

Tussar silk comes from wild silk moths. Antheraea moths, mostly, living in forests, eating sal or arjun or oak leaves depending on where they are. Nobody's controlling their diet or their environment. They do what moths do.

The fibre is coarser than mulberry silk, with a natural gold or copper tone. It has texture. Some people call it raw, though that's not technically accurate. It just doesn't have that refined, liquid smoothness of mulberry silk. It feels earthier, more substantial.

In terms of sustainable clothing, tussar sits in an interesting place. It's less resource intensive than farmed silk because the moths are living in existing forests. But it's also less predictable, harder to standardise, and more dependent on forest health and seasonal patterns.

The cocoons are often collected after the moth has emerged, which means the silk thread is broken in places and has to be spun rather than reeled. This changes the fabric's character entirely. It becomes something closer to handspun cotton in texture, though it's still silk in every other way.

3. The Peaceful One: Eri Silk

Eri silk is sometimes called peace silk or ahimsa silk because the moths are allowed to complete their metamorphosis before the cocoons are processed. The silk is harvested after the moth has chewed its way out and flown away.

This sounds better ethically, and for many people working in organic fashion, it is. But it changes the product. Because the cocoon is broken, the silk has to be spun rather than reeled. 

The resulting fabric is softer, less lustrous, more like wool in some ways. Some people love this. Others find it disappointing if they're expecting traditional silk's shine.

Eri silk also absorbs dye differently and doesn't have the same tensile strength. It's warmer than other silks, which makes it good for certain applications but less suitable for others. It's not better or worse. It's just different, with different trade-offs.

If you're building a wardrobe of ethical dresses and this matters to you philosophically, eri silk might be worth seeking out. Just know what you're getting.

4. The Rare One: Muga Silk

Muga silk comes exclusively from Assam. The silkworms feed on som and soalu leaves, and the resulting silk has a natural golden colour that doesn't fade. You can't bleach it white. You can't dye it darker. It is what it is.

This silk is rare, expensive, and culturally specific. It's been made the same way for centuries by communities who hold the knowledge of how to work with these particular moths, these particular leaves, this particular climate.

From a sustainable fabrics perspective, muga silk is interesting because it's so place-based. It can't be scaled, can't be replicated elsewhere, can't be industrialised without losing what makes it muga. This makes it more expensive but also more likely to support traditional livelihoods in specific regions.

When you buy muga silk, you're buying something that comes from one place, made by people with specific inherited knowledge. That's worth something in a world where most fabric production is anonymous and interchangeable.

What Actually Matters When You're Buying

Here's the thing: you can know all the types of silk that exist and still make bad choices. Or you can know nothing and make good ones, if you ask the right questions.

Where did this come from? Who made it? How were they paid? What happened to the environment in the process? These questions work for any sustainable clothing, not just silk.

Mulberry silk isn't inherently less sustainable than tussar. Industrial tussar can be just as exploitative as industrial mulberry. Small scale, ethically produced mulberry silk exists. The fibre type matters less than the system it comes from.

If you care about the worms, look for peace silk. If you care about forest ecosystems, look for wild silk from well managed forests. If you care about artisan livelihoods, look for silk from producer cooperatives where weavers are named and credited. If you care about chemical use, look for organic certification.

But mostly, care about transparency. If a brand can't tell you where their silk comes from and how it was made, they probably don't know. And if they don't know, you're gambling.

Making Sense of It All

Let us help you through!

• Touch things. Different silks feel different. Mulberry is smooth and cool. Tussar has texture. Eri is soft and matte. Your hands know more than marketing copy ever will.
• Buy less, buy better. One well made piece in any type of silk will outlast five cheap ones. This isn't just eco fashion philosophy. It's practical economics.
• Ask about care. Some silks can be hand-washed. Some can't. Some age beautifully with a bit of wear. Some don't. This affects whether something becomes a wardrobe staple or a dry cleaning hostage you eventually give away.

And remember that sustainable dresses or any sustainable clothing made from silk aren't automatically ethical just because they're silk. The fibre is one part of a much longer story about labour, land use, chemical inputs, water consumption, and fair pay.

Where Good Silk Lives

At TuDuGu, we work with artisans who know silk the way you know your own neighbourhood. They can tell you which trees the moths ate from, which village the weaver lives in, how long the fabric sat on the loom.

The silk we carry isn't just sustainable fabrics in the abstract. It's specific silk from specific places, made by specific people using methods their grandparents would recognise. 

When you buy from us, you're not just getting organic fashion or ethical dresses. You're getting a piece of work that has a story you can actually trace.

Because the best silk isn't necessarily the smoothest or the shiniest. It's the silk where everyone involved, human and otherwise, was treated with something approaching respect. 

Where forests stayed forests, where weavers earned enough to keep weaving, where traditional knowledge got passed down instead of lost.

That's the kind of silk worth wearing. The kind that feels good not just on your skin but in your conscience too.