The complete guide
Silk Pillowcases, Momme Weight and Queen Sizing, A Buyer's Guide
The small annoyance that makes people switch
Most people do not go looking for a silk pillowcase. They go looking for a fix to something small and persistent. Hair that is knotted on one side every morning. Sleep creases on a cheek that take an hour to settle. A pillow that feels warm within minutes of lying down. None of these are serious problems, which is exactly why they go unsolved for years.
The common thread is friction. Your head does not stay still at night. You turn, you shift, you bury your face in the pillow and then roll away from it. Every one of those movements drags your hair and your skin across whatever fabric is on the pillow. With woven cotton, that fabric has texture. The fibres are short, the surface is slightly rough, and things catch on it.
Silk works differently. The fibre is a single long filament rather than a bundle of short ones spun together, so the surface it creates is far smoother. The same head movement that tugs on cotton slides on silk. That is the entire mechanism, and it is worth being clear about because silk gets talked about as if it were a treatment. It is not. It is a smoother surface, and a smoother surface causes less drag.
What momme actually tells you
Momme is the number you will see on every decent silk pillowcase listing, and most shoppers skip past it because it looks like jargon. It is worth understanding, because it is the single most useful figure for comparing one silk pillowcase to another.
Momme measures the weight of the silk fabric. Higher momme means more silk per unit of fabric, which means a heavier, denser, more durable cloth. Bedding silk usually runs between about 16 and 25 momme. Below that range the fabric starts feeling thin and the seams take a beating in the wash. Above it, the silk gets heavy and loses some of the fluid drape that makes it pleasant in the first place.
This pillowcase is 22 momme. That sits toward the upper half of the bedding range. In practice it means the fabric has noticeable weight when you pick it up, it falls over a pillow rather than clinging to it, and it stands up to regular hand washing better than a lighter silk would. If you are comparing a 22 momme silk pillowcase against a 19, the heavier one will generally feel more substantial and last longer with the same care.
Thread count sits alongside momme. Here it is 600, which describes how densely the threads are packed into the weave. A high thread count in silk gives you a close, even surface with no coarseness. Momme tells you about weight, thread count tells you about the weave, and you want both to be reasonable rather than one to be spectacular.
Why double-sided silk is not a detail
A lot of silk pillowcases are silk on the face and something else on the back. Polyester, cotton blend, whatever keeps the cost down. On paper it sounds defensible, since you only sleep on one side.
Except you do not. People flip pillows constantly without thinking about it, usually chasing the cooler side. If the back of your pillowcase is a different fabric, half your night is spent on it. This one is 100% mulberry silk on both faces, so it does not matter which way the pillow lands. That is a real difference in daily use, even though it reads like a specification footnote.
The zip, and why it is better than an envelope
Pillowcases close in one of two ways. An envelope flap tucks the open end back inside itself. A zip seals it. Envelope closures are cheaper to make and they work fine on cotton, but on silk the slippery surface means the pillow gradually works its way out as you move. You wake up with a corner of bare pillow poking out.
This pillowcase uses a concealed zipper. The pillow goes in, the zip closes, and the pillow stays put. The zip is hidden in the seam so you do not see it on a made bed and you do not feel it in normal sleeping positions. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, just turn the zip edge toward the foot of the bed when you make it up.
Who this suits
Anyone with long hair, curly hair or hair that tangles easily tends to notice the difference within a few nights. So do people who wake with pillow marks on their face. People who run warm often like silk for the cool initial feel, though your duvet and room temperature matter far more than your pillowcase on that front.
It also suits anyone buying a gift and unsure what to choose. A silk pillowcase gift set in a neutral light grey works in almost any bedroom, costs about what people expect a nice gift to cost, and is something most people would not buy for themselves.
Who it suits less well: anyone who wants to throw bedding in the machine on a hot cycle and forget about it. Silk needs hand washing. That is not difficult, but it is a change of habit, and it is worth being honest about before you buy.
Choosing the right size
Queen in New Zealand means a pillow around 75 cm long by 50 cm wide, and that is what these are cut to. Before ordering, strip your current pillowcase off and measure the pillow itself flat, not the case. Pillowcases are usually cut a little generous.
If your pillow is longer than 75 cm you have a king, and queen cases will not fit. If it is noticeably shorter, you have a standard, and queen cases will fit but will leave slack at one end. Slack is not a disaster, it just looks less crisp on a made bed.
Pillow loft matters too. A very plump, over-filled pillow can stretch a queen case tight and put strain on the seams. If your pillow is unusually thick, give it a gentle squeeze test against the dimensions before deciding.
Care, honestly
Hand wash only, at 30°C or cooler. The right sequence is to dissolve a small amount of mild detergent in the water completely first, then put the pillowcase in. Dropping detergent onto wet silk creates concentrated spots that can mark the fabric.
Wash separately, or at most with similar colours. No bleach, no stain removers containing bleach, no fabric softener. If something spills, wash it that day rather than letting it dry in.
To dry, press or roll the water out gently. Do not wring, do not twist. Lay it flat or hang it out of direct sunlight, and keep it away from heaters and radiators. Sun and heat are what degrade silk and fade colour, more than washing ever does.
If it needs pressing, use a low iron on the reverse while the fabric is still slightly damp. Most of the time it will settle on its own once it is on the pillow.
Why two is the right number
This is sold as a pair, and that is the sensible format for silk. Because it is hand wash and air dry, a single pillowcase means you either skip washes or sleep on something else for a night while it dries. With two you simply rotate. One on the bed, one in the cupboard or on the line.
It also means a matched set across both sides of a queen or king bed, which just looks better than one silk pillowcase sitting next to a cotton one.
The short version
This is a two pack of queen silk pillowcases in light grey, made from 100% mulberry silk on both sides at 22 momme and 600 thread count, measuring 75 by 50 cm, with a concealed zip. The 22 momme weight means a fabric with real body that holds up to washing. The double-sided construction means the underside is silk too. The zip keeps the pillow where it should be.
Hand wash cool, dry out of the sun, and rotate the pair. Do that and you have a pillowcase that stays smooth and keeps its colour for a long time.