3-Step Silk Duvet Buyers Guide
Step 1 – Duvet Filling (Silk Quality)
The higher the quality of the silk, the more insulating the duvet. The quality of silk is determined by the type of cocoons and the length of the fiber.
1. Type and percentage of silk filling is the key.
Knowing what is in your silk duvet is essential if you want a duvet that will perform as it should. Top grade long strand dupion mulberry silk is what you should be looking for in your duvet. It comes from a type of mulberry silkworm cocoon where 2 or more silkworms interlock their silk floss to make one cocoon. Dupion mulberry silk floss is stronger, making it the best choice to make silk duvet. Long strand dupion mulberry silk does however come with a caveat. It's rare, so it’s expensive. But then you get what you pay for. Cheaper silk duvets are almost always filled with a mix of polyester and mulberry silk or wild tussah silk, or chopped strand silk which is essentially off cuts of silk that can't be used for anything else. That's why we always tell our customers to pay attention to the percentage of silk filling on the label. It must say 100% mulberry silk. Read here to learn more about the difference between mulberry silk and tussah silk, single cocoon and dupion cocoon.
2. Silk duvet construction matters! Choose the handmade ones to avoid over stitching.
A good silk duvet should be handmade without over stitching. The traditional manufacturing process involves pulling and crossing the long silk fibers over multiple thicknesses, creating a special grid design so that the filling remains fluffy and in place for a long time. This long manual process is the only way to produce a breathable filling that offers the best thermal regulation. With such grid design and professional stretching skills, there’s no need for over stitching. Warning: Over stitched duvets may be filled with poor quality silk or silk waste (chopped silk fiber or trimmings), or even synthetic materials that may contain harmful particles.
3. The presence of an inspection zipper.
The manufacturing process and the quality of the silk are of prime importance. The best way of knowing what you are buying is to check for yourself. At alanünü, we put an inspection zipper for all of our duvets (except for our toddler size only because of potential small item choking hazard) where customer can inspect the quality of silk inside the duvet. No tricks, no gimmicks!
4. Be aware of duvets with “price too good to be true”, or “washable duvets”.
Silk duvet is not yet a common choice in the western market and there hasn’t been a very detailed standard of the quality. This gives some retailers chance to take advantage of customers’ lack of knowledge about silk duvets to sell almost anything as a silk duvet with an attractive price point. However, a silk duvet is more than a duvet filled with silk. All the properties of a silk duvet depend on the choice of the finest raw materials and a long and careful manufacturing process. Premium quality mulberry silk is never cheap, simply because of the quantity can be low and the handmade manufacturing process takes labor and time. The good news is that a quality duvet will provide you not only with incomparable comfort, but will also last for much longer.
The other more and more common selling point is “machine washable silk duvet”. It might sound attractive for the ease of care, but once again, customers should beware this deceptive phrase because after two washes in water, a silk duvet will have lost most of its thermal and health-giving properties. Silk is actually a fiber that absorbs humidity naturally. This property discourages the growth of bacteria and dust mites and enables the fiber to better regulate temperature. A good quality silk duvet requires very minimum care by airing out on a sunny day in shade, 3-4 times a year to remove any residual moisture. Check out our Silk Duvet Care Guide for easy to follow instructions.
Step 2 – Net Silk Filling Weight (Relevant to TOG rating under UK standard for down duvet)
TOG rating is commonly used for down duvet in UK. TOG stands for 'Thermal Overall Grade', which is a unit of measurement used to calculate the thermal insulation of a product, usually in the textile industry. Commonly associated with the thickness of duvets, tog ratings give you a rough guide as to how warm your duvet will keep you. Generally speaking, the higher the tog rating, the warmer the duvet.
Keep in mind, we can only class tog ratings as an estimate because they are calculated on a flat surface in a lab. This doesn’t correctly simulate a duvet draping over a person in bed. It also doesn’t take into account other people in the bed with you or outdoor and room temperatures.
In the UK duvets are sold in increments of 1.5 tog, from 3.0 tog for a light, summery duvet, up to 15.0 tog for a heavy winter duvet. The given values represent a minimum, the actual values may be up to 3.0 tog higher. Because tog testing is performed on plain duvets in a lab, fitting a duvet with a cover and wearing nightclothes can effectively increase the tog rating.
As of yet there is no official British Standards tog rating for silk duvets. This leaves the market in a bit of turmoil as some retailers may recommend one thing, and others something completely different. The comparative tog rating system we have seen is by measuring grams of silk per square meter. A duvet filled with 250gsm silk will be the equivalent of a 2-4 tog. A duvet filled with 400gsm will be the equivalent of a 7-9 tog, and a duvet filled with 600gsm will be the equivalent tog a 9-13 tog.
Here are our TOG recommendations for different seasons of the year to help you decide which could be the best option for you.
Summer
There’s no worse feeling than spending the summer months kicking off the duvet in the middle of the night because you’re too hot, only to then feel too cold without a cover. This is where a summer duvet comes into play. A duvet from as light as 3 tog is the preferred option for the warmer months. Shop for our Summer Duvet Collection
Spring/Fall
This is ideal for someone who is sensitive to changing temperatures or ordinarily prefers to swap out their duvet in Spring and Autumn. For couples sharing a bed, we choose a 6 tog duvet as the extra person already adds that bit of extra warmth. Shop for our Spring/Fall Duvet Collection
All Seasons/Duo-Duvet
When winter starts or someone who needs extra warmth, our all seasons collection is the best choice. Our All Seasons duvet (Duo-Duvet) consists of two duvets with different silk filling weight, a lighter summer weight and a thicker spring/fall weight, making it a warm and snugly 9 - 10.5 tog winter duvet. For those who don’t want to buy separate duvets for different seasons, our duo-duvet is the right choice for you. With small buckles on each corner, the 2 duvets can be attached and detached with ease, making it flexible to use all year long or under different room temperatures. Shop for our All Seasons/Duo-Duvet Collection
For Babies and Kids
For babies and young children, a lower tog is recommended, as they aren’t able to regulate body temperature as well as adults. This means that they tend to get hotter faster at night.
Because of the higher risk of overheating, as well as the fact that kids take up much less room in their beds and their duvet is able to wrap around them and trap more air around their bodies, we recommend 1.5 tog duvets for infants in cribs and toddlers under 3 and a higher 3 tog duvet for kids 3 and above Our breathable light kids duvets would be suitable for all seasons. Shop for our Kid’s All Seasons Duvet Collection
What if he gets hot and I get cold?
Most of us have a slightly different internal temperature gauge to our partners. If you don’t want to put on the thermal pyjamas every night, you’ll want a better solution. Putting an extra blanket on top of the duvet isn’t great either as it tends to slip off when you move, or make it’s way over to your partner instead.
So what do you do if you’re cold in bed and your partner is too hot? Amazingly, you get to select which tog you want on which side of the duvet. As long as they’re one level apart, you can go for any combination to create your own custom-made duvet. Don’t worry about which side is which – just turn the duvet over to get the right warmth level for each partner.
Contact us to order a customized duvet that best suits your need.
Keep in mind, there are several personal factors to consider when determining the ideal tog rating of your new duvet, such as the climate where you live, your house’s heating system and whether you generally feel hot or cold at night.
Many people choose to have two duvets at home —a light duvet for use in summer and a thicker one for the cold winter months. If storage or budget limitations restrict you to owning one duvet, we suggest choosing a Spring/Fall duvet which provides the best of both worlds and can be used year-round.
Step 3 – Duvet Casing
The casings of our silk duvets are 60 TC. The TC (Thread Count) is a unit of measurement of the density of fabrics by number of threads per square inch. General understanding is that the higher the thread counts, the smaller the gap among threads and the better insulation and less chance for the filling materials to escape. This is true for almost all down, wool or cotton duvets. However, for premium quality long strand mulberry silk duvet, The higher thread count is unnecessary. Premium mulberry silk duvet is filled with long strand mulberry silk and positioned and secured with a special hand stitching process which means unlike short strand silk or other duvet filling materials, there's no risk of silk floss coming out of the casing fabric. A quality natural cotton casing with lower thread count also promises a much softer touch and much more lightweight and more breathable, which makes it ideal for babies and young children.