What Is Momme, and Why 22

If you have started comparing silk seriously, you have run into a number followed by the word momme, and possibly a letter grade beside it. These two figures tell you more about a piece of silk than any description will.

Here is what they mean:

Momme, defined

Momme (pronounced roughly "mommy," and often written as mm) is a unit of weight for silk. It works the way thread count works for cotton: a rough shorthand for substance.

Technically, momme measures the weight in pounds of a piece of silk 45 inches wide and 100 yards long. Practically, all you need to know is that a higher number means a heavier, denser silk.

Most silk you encounter falls between 12 and 30 momme.

What the range feels like

12 to 16 momme is light. This is scarf territory, where you want the fabric to float and move. It is genuinely appropriate for a large scarf and genuinely too thin for a pillowcase, where it will wear through and lose shape.

19 to 22 momme is the working middle. Enough substance to hold structure and survive regular washing, still fluid enough to drape.

25 to 30 momme is heavy. It has real presence, and it is used for garments where weight is part of the point. It is also considerably more expensive, and past a certain point the additional weight stops improving the experience and starts reducing the drape.

Why 22

SILKAVA uses 22-momme for eye masks, pillowcases, and hair scrunchies, and the reason is that it sits at a specific and useful point in that range.

Lighter silk feels thin in the hand. In a scrunchie, it means the piece collapses rather than holding its shape. In an eye mask, it means the mask does not settle and stay put through the night. In a pillowcase, it means visible wear within a year.

Heavier silk solves those problems but introduces others. It costs meaningfully more, and it loses the fluid quality that makes silk feel like silk rather than like a stiff, shiny fabric.

At 22-momme, silk has enough weight to be felt when you pick it up, enough structure to hold its shape through washing, and enough softness to drape. It is a choice rather than a maximum.

That is the honest framing: 22 is not the highest number available. It is the number that stops improving the thing you actually notice.

The other number: grade

Alongside momme you will often see a grade, expressed as a letter and a number. Grade 6A is the highest, followed by 5A, 4A, and downward.

Grade describes the threads themselves: their length, evenness, and consistency. Grade 6A means long, uniform threads with very few joins.

This matters because thread length determines surface smoothness. Short threads mean more joins, and each join is a small interruption in the surface. Long threads produce a continuous surface, and that continuity is what allows silk to slip rather than pull.

Momme tells you how much silk is there. Grade tells you how good it is. You want both.

What to ask when comparing

A seller confident in their material will publish three things: the fiber (mulberry silk), the weight (a momme number), and the grade. If any of the three is missing, it is worth asking why.

Add certification to that list. SILKAVA's silk is certified to the OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 (Cert. No. 21.HCN.68112, Hohenstein), which means the finished article has been tested against a long list of substances known to be harmful.

Four facts, published plainly, tell you more than any amount of description.

For washing, see How to Wash Silk.

For the full care guide, see Caring for Your Silk.