Melanie spent six years living and working abroad and during this time built a close working relationship with Seres' silk supplier and her family based company. So good were their working practices, that they won the prestigious Four Start OTOP (One Tambon (town), One Product) award for excellence, given for preserving local traditions, using local materials and providing employment for local people whilst producing goods of the highest quality.

We work closely with our supplier to produce unique designs with locally woven silk, ensuring that our silk gift range remains exclusive.

How silk was discovered

Empress Si Ling Chi of is credited with discovering silk. While sitting under a mulberry tree in a palace garden having tea, a silkworm's cocoon reportedly fell out of the tree into her cup. While removing it from her tea, she discovered the fine silk filament of the cocoon beginning to unravel.

The Chinese guarded the secret of silk for millenniums by putting to death anyone found guilty of smuggling silkworm eggs, cocoons or mulberry seeds. Silk became the cloth of emperors a great source of wealth. About 1900 years ago a Chinese princess who married an Indian prince is said to have successfully smuggled silkworm eggs out of China in her headdress and then fed them with the leaves of Indian mulberry trees, thereby spreading silk production to other countries.

Seres is the Ancient Greek word used for silk traders. Our silk has triangular fibers which reflect the light like a prism. It also has layers of protein that gives it a natural sheen and that is what helps make it so lustrous.