The complete guide
Choosing a 25 Momme Silk Pillowcase, A Practical Buyer's Guide
The small annoyance nobody talks about
Most people do not lie awake thinking about their pillowcase. You notice it in other ways. Hair that looks slept on no matter what you did the night before. A crease down one cheek that takes until mid morning to fade. A pillow that feels warm and slightly sticky by two in the morning in January. None of it is dramatic. It is just friction and heat, the two things a woven cotton cover is quietly good at producing.
Silk changes the surface your face and hair spend seven or eight hours pressed against. The fibre is smooth along its length, so things slide across it rather than catching. It also moves heat away from the skin more readily than a dense cotton weave. Those are properties of the material, not promises about how you will look. But they are the reason silk pillowcases went from a niche luxury to something you find in ordinary linen cupboards.
What momme actually tells you
If you have shopped for silk at all, you have run into the word momme, usually written as a number followed by mm. It is a weight measurement, borrowed from the Japanese silk trade. One momme equals about 4.34 grams per square metre. So a 25 momme fabric is heavier, denser and more opaque than a 19 momme one made from the same fibre.
Think of it the way you think of denim weight. A lightweight denim and a heavy denim are both denim. They just behave differently. Light silk floats and feels airy. Heavy silk drapes, sits flat and has a more substantial hand feel. Neither is wrong.
Most silk pillowcases sold today land at 19 momme, which is the industry's comfortable middle. This one is 25 momme. You will feel the difference in the first few seconds of handling it. The cloth has body. It does not slip off the pillow and bunch up at the corner the way very light silk sometimes does.
Higher momme also means more fibre to wear through before the fabric gives up. That does not make it indestructible, and silk still needs careful washing. But a denser weave stands up better to the repeated friction of a head moving across it night after night.
Silk on both sides, and why it matters
One detail worth checking on any silk pillowcase is whether both faces are silk. A fair number of cheaper covers use a silk front and a cotton or polyester back. That keeps the price down and it looks identical in a photograph.
The problem shows up around 3am. You flip the pillow because the top side has gone warm, and suddenly you are lying on cotton. This cover is mulberry silk front and back, so it does not matter which way the pillow lands.
Undyed, and what that looks like in a real bedroom
Silk comes off the reel in its own soft off-white. This pillowcase stays that way, with no dye bath in the process. The result is a natural white with a faint warmth to it, closer to cream than to printer paper.
In practice that is easy to live with. It sits well against linen sheets, oatmeal tones, grey, and almost any natural palette. Next to a very bright bleached white cotton sheet you will notice a slight difference in tone, so if your bedding is optical white, be aware of that before you order. Most people find it reads as softer and warmer, which is usually the point.
The side opening
The closure here is an envelope style side entry, set slightly off centre. There is no zip and no buttons. That is a deliberate choice. Zips on pillowcases have a habit of catching hair, and a plastic zip pull pressing into your temple is nobody's idea of a good night.
Because the opening runs along the side rather than the end, both ends of the cover look finished. That means it doubles as a pillow sham. During the day it sits neatly on a made bed. At night it does the ordinary job of a pillowcase. For a guest room or a bed you like to keep looking tidy, that flexibility is genuinely useful, and it is one reason the best silk pillow sham styles tend to use side entries.
Getting the size right
This is the queen size, measuring 71.1 cm long by 50.8 cm wide. Before ordering, lay your pillow flat and measure it. Pillow sizing in Australia is reasonably standardised but not perfectly so, and a pillow that has been fluffed and compressed for a few years may measure differently to a new one.
If your pillow is a touch smaller than the cover, it will still work. The fabric sits a little looser and the look is softer. If your pillow is significantly larger, the cover will strain at the seams and the envelope flap will not hold properly, so size up instead.
A standard pillow in a queen cover will have spare fabric at the end. Some people actively prefer that relaxed look. Others find it untidy. It is a matter of taste rather than function.
Living with silk, the honest version
Silk is not difficult, but it is not a towel either. A few habits make it last.
Wash it cool. Hand washing in a basin with a gentle detergent made for wool or delicates takes about five minutes and is the kindest option. If you would rather use the machine, put the cover in a mesh laundry bag and run a delicates or gentle cycle on cold. The mesh bag is not optional in a machine. It stops the fabric wrapping around zips, buttons and the agitator.
Skip the bleach and skip the fabric softener. Bleach attacks protein fibres directly. Softener leaves a film that dulls the surface and undoes the smooth feel you paid for.
Dry it flat. Lay the cover on a clean towel or on a flat drying rack, out of direct sunlight. Sun fades and weakens silk over time. A tumble dryer does both faster.
If you want it crisp, press on the lowest silk setting with the fabric slightly damp, ideally from the reverse side or through a thin cotton cloth. Honestly, most people skip this. Silk looks fine straight off the rack.
Wash it every week or two, in step with the rest of your bedding. If you use leave-in hair products or a rich night cream, make it weekly. Buying two covers and rotating them is the easiest way to stay on top of it, and it is why the best washable silk pillowcase is usually the one you own two of.
Who this suits
Someone who has tried a thin silk pillowcase and found it slippery or flimsy will probably get on well with 25 momme. The extra weight makes it feel like proper bedding rather than a novelty.
It suits people with long hair, since long hair moves across the pillow surface more and the lower friction is easier to notice. It suits warm sleepers in summer. It suits anyone dressing a guest room who wants a cover that looks presentable during the day.
It is less of a fit if you want something you can throw in a hot wash with the towels and forget about. Silk asks for a cool wash and a flat dry. That is the trade.
The short version
This is a queen size pillowcase in 100% mulberry silk, woven at a dense 25 momme weight, with silk on both faces so the flip side is the same as the front. It measures 71.1 cm by 50.8 cm. The natural white is the fibre's own colour, undyed. The side entry envelope opening means no zips near your face and lets the cover work as a sham.
Wash it cool, dry it flat, keep it out of the sun, and it will stay good for a long time. Orders ship from Australian warehouses in three to seven working days, and returns are open for 14 days from delivery on unused, unwashed items. If you are stuck between sizes, measure the pillow first and ask us.