What Is 9 Momme Silk — And Why Does It Matter?

There is a number that appears in the description of every ONE OF SILK piece: 9 momme. If you have never bought a silk shawl before, this number means nothing. If you have, you already know: it means everything.

What Is Momme?

Momme (pronounced moh-mee, abbreviated mm) is the unit used to measure the weight of silk fabric. It works like thread count in cotton — but in reverse. Where higher thread counts in cotton generally mean heavier, denser fabric, momme weight in silk describes something more nuanced: the relationship between weight, translucency, drape, and the way the fabric interacts with light.

The scale runs roughly from 4 momme — so sheer it is almost invisible — to 30 momme and above, which is dense enough for upholstery. Everything between is a different conversation about what silk can do.

Why 9 Momme?

Nine momme sits at a very specific point on that scale. It is light enough to be almost weightless against the skin — the kind of fabric that moves with the body rather than hanging from it. It is translucent enough that light passes through it, activating the color of whatever is painted on its surface rather than simply reflecting off it. And it is substantial enough to hold a loaded brush stroke without pilling, buckling, or absorbing pigment unevenly.

For hand-painted silk, these three qualities are not preferences. They are requirements.

When Gamze Haberal paints on 9 momme mulberry silk, the pigment does not sit on top of the fabric. It enters the fiber — diffusing outward from the point of contact, softening at its edges, pooling slightly where the silk holds moisture. The result is color with depth rather than color with coverage. You are not looking at a painted surface. You are looking through a painted surface, at the warm ivory luminosity of the silk itself, glowing from beneath.

This is something that heavier silk cannot do. At 12 or 16 momme, the fabric is too dense — the pigment sits higher, the translucency is reduced, the painting loses its particular quality of light. And lighter silk — anything below 8 momme — cannot hold the structural integrity that a large, complex composition requires. The pigment spreads too fast. The brush loses control.

Nine momme is the point at which silk does exactly what a painter needs it to do.

What Is Mulberry Silk?

All ONE OF SILK pieces are made from 100% pure mulberry silk — the highest grade of silk available, produced by Bombyx mori silkworms fed exclusively on mulberry leaves. This matters for two reasons.

First, mulberry silk has a natural ivory warmth that contributes actively to every hand-painted composition. It is not simply a white ground. It is a warm, luminous presence beneath the pigment — and that warmth is part of the color of every piece.

Second, mulberry silk has the most consistent fiber structure of any silk variety, which means the pigment behaves predictably as it spreads. This is not a small thing. When Gamze applies a free wash of teal across the full surface of a shawl, she is relying on the silk to distribute that pigment with a specific softness. Mulberry silk delivers that softness every time.

Does Momme Weight Affect How You Wear It?

Yes — and in every way that matters.

A 9 momme silk shawl at 75 × 200 cm weighs almost nothing. You will forget you are wearing it, which is the point. It moves with you — lifting in a breeze, settling around the shoulders with the drape of something liquid rather than something draped. In warm weather, it is cool against the skin, a natural temperature regulator that no synthetic can replicate.

It also means that when you hold a ONE OF SILK piece up to the light — which we encourage — the composition changes. The deep teals become translucent. The whites glow. The pigment layers reveal their depth. The shawl you are holding in the afternoon light is not quite the same shawl you were holding in the morning.

A Note on Care

Nine momme silk is delicate — but not fragile. The pigments used in every ONE OF SILK piece are permanent and light-fast, set into the fiber during the painting process. The shawl can be gently hand-washed in cold water with a silk-specific detergent, air-dried away from direct sunlight, and stored folded in tissue or hung in a breathable bag.

What it cannot survive is heat. No tumble drying, no direct ironing on the painted surface. Treat it the way you would treat any work of art that happens to be wearable — with attention, not anxiety.

The Bottom Line

Nine momme is not a technical specification. It is a creative decision — the specific weight at which silk becomes the ideal collaborator for a painter who works with color, light, and the particular behavior of pigment meeting fiber.

Every ONE OF SILK piece begins with this choice. Everything that follows depends on it.

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