The complete guide
The Honest Buyer's Guide to King Silk Pillowcases
The problem with waking up rumpled
Most of us do not think much about what our face spends eight hours pressed against. Cotton is the default, it washes easily, and nobody questions it. But cotton has a texture, and texture means friction. Turn over forty times in a night and your hair gets dragged in forty different directions. Your cheek gets creased against the weave. By morning you have bedhead and a pillow crease that takes an hour to settle.
Silk changes the surface. The fibre is long, smooth and even, so hair and skin slide over it rather than catching. That is the whole mechanism, and it is a physical property of the fabric, not a treatment or a finish that wears off. You notice it the first night, mostly as an absence: less tangling, less tugging, a pillow that feels cool when you first lie down.
This particular set is a pair of king size cases in 22 momme mulberry silk, in a solid green. Below is how to work out whether that is the right combination for your bed.
What momme actually tells you
If you read one number on a silk pillowcase listing, make it the momme. Momme (pronounced "mom-ee") measures the weight of the silk, and it is a far better guide to quality than thread count alone.
Here is roughly how it breaks down. Around 16 momme is light. It feels soft but thin, and over a dark pillow you can sometimes see the pillow through it. Around 19 momme is the common mid-range, perfectly usable and often cheaper. At 22 momme, which is what you have here, the fabric has genuine body. It drapes over the pillow and stays put. It does not feel papery, and it holds up better through repeated washing because there is simply more silk in it.
Go much above 22 and you start trading softness for durability, which suits upholstery more than a pillowcase. That is why 22 momme is so often held up as the best 22 momme silk pillowcase benchmark for bedding. It sits at the point where weight and softness meet.
The thread count on this set is 600, which describes how tightly the threads are woven. Combined with a 22 momme weight, that points to a fine, closely woven fabric with the soft sheen silk is known for. Treat thread count as supporting information. Momme is the headline.
Double sided, and why that matters
A detail worth checking on any silk pillowcase is whether both sides are silk. Plenty of cheaper cases use silk on the face and something else on the back, usually a polyester or cotton blend. That halves the benefit. Pillows get flipped, especially by restless sleepers, and if the underside is not silk you end up on the cheap face without realising.
This set is 100% mulberry silk on both faces. Flip it as many times as you like, the surface is the same.
The zip question
Silk pillowcases usually close one of two ways. An envelope closure folds a flap of fabric over the open end. A zip closes it properly.
The envelope style is simpler to make and slightly easier to wash, but it has a habit of letting the pillow creep out over the course of a night. You wake up with half a pillow exposed and a bunched case. A hidden zipper, which is what this set uses, keeps everything enclosed. It also looks neater on a made bed, because there is no flap breaking the line of the pillow.
The zip runs along one edge, well away from where your face sits. If you happen to sleep right at the edge of the pillow, just turn the case so the zip is on the far side.
Getting the size right
This is where most returns come from, so it is worth two minutes.
These cases are 91.4 cm long by 50.8 cm wide, listed in inches as 20 by 36. That is the standard king pillow size. Before you order, lay your pillow flat and measure it edge to edge at its longest and widest. If you land near 90 by 50 cm, you are in the right territory.
A few things to watch for. Queen and standard pillows are shorter, so a king case will be baggy on them, which looks untidy and lets the pillow slide around inside. European pillows are square, usually around 65 by 65 cm, and will not fit at all. Very thick memory foam or contoured pillows can be a tight squeeze even at the right length, so measure the thickness too.
If you are shopping for a silk pillowcase NZ-wide and your pillows are a mix of sizes, measure each one. It is common for a bed to have two different pillow sizes on it without anyone noticing.
The colour and how it sits in a room
This is a plain green in a modern, solid finish. No pattern, no print. Green reads as a calm, grounded colour in a bedroom, and a muted tone works well against white, cream, warm grey and natural linen. It also handles being the single point of colour in an otherwise neutral room, which is useful if you do not want to redo the whole bed.
Because it is a two pack, you can run a matched pair across a king bed and have the colour read as deliberate rather than accidental.
Washing it without ruining it
Silk is not difficult. It is just different from cotton, and a lot of people assume difficult when they mean unfamiliar.
The care instructions for this product call for hand washing at a maximum of 30 degrees Celsius. The method is simple. Soak the pillowcase in clean water first. Dissolve a small amount of mild detergent fully in the water before the silk goes in, because undissolved powder can leave marks. Wash it on its own or with similar colours. Do not bleach it.
To dry, press the water out gently. Do not wring or twist. Reshape the case and dry it flat on a towel, or hang it in the shade. Direct sun and tumble dryers are the two things most likely to damage silk over time, more so than washing.
If you spill something, deal with it the same day. Marks that sit for a week are much harder to lift.
If you want it crisp, iron on the lowest setting on the reverse side while slightly damp. Most people skip this step entirely.
Who this suits, and who it does not
A 22 momme mulberry silk pillowcase pair suits someone with king pillows who wants a smoother surface and is happy to hand wash. It suits people with long hair that tangles overnight. It works as a gift, because it is a nicer thing than most people buy themselves and the plain green suits a wide range of bedrooms.
It does not suit someone who wants everything in the hot wash with the towels. It does not suit standard or queen pillows. And if you want a machine washable option above all else, this is not the one, because the care instructions here are hand wash only.
The short version
Twenty two momme is a good, substantial weight of silk, heavier than the common 19 momme and better for drape and durability. Both sides are 100% mulberry silk, so flipping the pillow does not cost you anything. The hidden zip keeps the pillow in place all night. The size is king, 91.4 by 50.8 cm, so measure your pillow first. The colour is a plain, calm green. Care is hand wash cool, mild detergent, no bleach, dry in the shade.
Two cases per pack means one on the bed and one in the cupboard, or a matched pair across a shared king. If that lines up with your bed and your laundry habits, this is a straightforward choice.