HISTORY OF SILK
The thread of an invisible bond
For millennia, silk has connected invisible worlds between empires, territories, and cultures.
Among fabrics, none has this power: that of crossing the centuries and weaving silent alliances.
The first traces of silk found in China date back more than 8,000 years . Long before trade routes, long before writings, China was already weaving. Silk was born there in the meticulous gestures of women and artisans, in carefully raised silkworms, in the transmission of a knowledge that has never ceased to be perfected.
She was not just a textile: she already carried within her a relationship with time, the body, nature and beauty.
Our brand is part of this history: a link between China, the cradle of silk and its craftsmanship, and France, the land of elegance and refinement .
The birth of silk
The Myth of Empress Leizu (嫘祖)
Legend has it that nearly 5,000 years ago , Empress Leizu, wife of the Yellow Emperor, discovered the secret of silk by watching a cocoon fall into her teacup. Unwinding it revealed the first silk thread. This founding gesture symbolically marks the birth of a craft that has become an emblem of Chinese civilization.
Behind this story lies a deeper truth: silk was born from the observation of life, from patience, and from precision. For centuries, it was women's hands that raised the worms, extracted the threads, and wove the fabrics. Silk is knowledge, a tradition, an invention. And from its very beginnings, it has been linked to creation, technology, and culture.
Nearly a millennium after the legend of Leizu, under the Shang dynasty (around 1600–1046 BC) , the Chinese fully mastered the breeding of the mulberry silkworm and established a true art of sericulture.
Silk became a precious commodity, guarded as a state secret. For centuries, its manufacturing process remained an imperial monopoly . More than a textile, it embodied knowledge, power, and culture.
The Silk Road
Flow of materials, ideas and cultures
From the 2nd century BC , silk left China to travel to the West. Under the Han Dynasty , the Empire opened land trade routes to Central Asia, Persia, and then to Rome. This trade network would later become what would be called the "Silk Road."
But this road is not just a commercial route. It is a space for cultural, diplomatic, and technological exchanges. It transports fabrics, but also know-how, languages, beliefs, and ideas .
Silk, as a rare and complex material to produce , becomes a strategic good . It is offered as tribute, negotiated by the emperors, controlled by the State .
For China, it is both a symbol of refinement and a lever of influence .
For the West, it becomes a coveted imported product , often reserved for the elite, a sign of distinction and fascination for elsewhere .
For over a thousand years, this material has enabled lasting exchanges between distant worlds. It has created bridges between cultures, transmitting gestures, tastes, and ideas. Silk has not only crossed territories: it has brought together visions of the world .
The arrival of silk in Europe
Between fascination and French refinement
China has long protected the secret of silk. But in the 6th century AD , the Byzantine Empire succeeded in unraveling its mystery: according to legend, monks sent by Emperor Justinian brought back silkworm eggs hidden in their hollow bamboo sticks.
Silk then began to be produced locally around the Mediterranean, notably in Greece, Sicily and Spain . But it was France , from the 16th century onwards, which gave European silk its letters of nobility.
Under the reign of Francis I , then Louis XIV , the city of Lyon became a center of weaving and textile design. Lyon silks adorned the European courts, and France imposed a unique style: elegant, ornamental, refined .
Silk, a living link between yesterday and today
Silk doesn't belong to us. It predates us by thousands of years.
It has been woven by civilizations, carried by kings, and passed down by anonymous hands. It has spanned eras, styles, and systems.
Today, we choose to be part of this continuity.
Not to replicate the past, but to prolong its momentum: that of demanding craftsmanship, of a link between cultures, of a more just relationship with time .
At SUKē, we see in silk a common language between China and France.
A link between history and the present, between gesture and idea, between matter and gaze.
We manufacture little, but with care. We create objects that carry meaning , designed to last, inhabited by what they transmit.
Silk isn't just a trend. It's a living memory. And it's in this memory that we've chosen to create.