Pure Mulberry Silk Hat Liner: 22 Momme Silk for Hair That Hates Hat Hair

Most hat liners are satin, and for most hats satin is the right choice: it is smooth, it holds its shape, it takes a print and it wipes clean. But some people want the real thing, silk, for a reason satin cannot answer: what a hat does to hair. Felt, wool and polyester linings rub hair all day, strip the moisture out of it and leave it flat, frizzy or broken at the ends. A pure mulberry silk hat liner is the cure, and it is the liner we make for the customer whose hat has to come off looking the way it went on. Here is what it is, who it is for, how to fit it, and where to get it while it makes its way from our Etsy shop to this site.

What mulberry silk is

Mulberry silk is the silk spun by silkworms raised on mulberry leaves, the long, even, unbroken filament that has been the finest silk for as long as silk has been woven. Ours is graded 6A, the top grade for evenness and lustre, and woven at 22 momme. Momme is the silk trade's measure of weight: 22 momme is heavier than the 16 to 19 momme of most silk pillowcases and scarves, which means a denser, more lustrous fabric that stands up to being tucked, stitched and worn daily. The listing title says 22mm, which is the usual shorthand for momme, not millimetres.

What it does for hair

Silk has the smoothest surface of any natural fibre, so hair slides across it instead of catching. That is the whole secret of the silk pillowcase, and it applies to a hat just as well: less rubbing means less frizz and fewer split ends, and silk does not soak up the natural oils or the product in hair the way cotton or synthetic linings do, so a blowout or a set of curls survives a day under a hat. Silk is also breathable and naturally gentle on the skin, which is why people with sensitive scalps ask for it. It is the liner for a wearer who takes care of their hair, for a customer who has bought an expensive hat and does not want to arrive with hat hair, and for anyone who cannot wear polyester against the skin.

Colours and sizes

The mulberry silk liner comes in bronze, gold, caramel, peach, jade, plum, pink and cream, colours chosen to sit inside a felt or a straw rather than shout, and unlike our satin liners it is made to hat size: 6 3/4, 7, 7 1/4, 7 1/2 and 7 3/4, which is 54 to 62 cm. It is about 4.75 inches (12 cm) tall, the same height as our satin liners, so it fits a fedora, a sun hat, a bucket hat, a beanie or a straw crown. Measure the head or the hat before ordering; the hat size chart converts inches and centimetres to US sizes.

How to fit a silk liner

Real silk is slippery, which is the point of it and the one thing to plan for when fitting. A satin liner stays in place tucked behind the sweatband on its own; a silk liner benefits from a few small tack stitches around its bottom edge, through the sweatband tape or the felt, so it cannot creep. Four to six stitches with a fine needle and a thread that matches the silk take a few minutes and leave a professional finish. Glue is possible but awkward on silk: if you use it, use very little and give it longer to set than you would on satin. A beginner who wants the easiest install should start with a satin liner from the main range and move to silk for the hats that matter. Our customers have stitched these into fedoras, bucket hats, sun hats and old Stetsons; the guide to how liners are attached has the general method.

Silk or satin

The two are not rivals. Satin is the working liner: one size, tucks in without sewing, comes in prints and solid colours and takes a logo, and it is what hat makers and repair counters use by the dozen. Silk is the luxury liner for the wearer and for hair. The honest advice is to line the everyday hats in satin and the good hat, the one that is worn to be seen, in mulberry silk.

Where to buy it

The pure mulberry silk hat liner is sold today in our Etsy shop, where it has more than a hundred reviews averaging 4.9 stars, and it will be listed on this site soon alongside the satin liners and the leather sweatbands. It ships from New York like everything else we make. Until it appears here, order it on Etsy, or ask us through the contact page and we will help you choose a colour and a size. Across our whole Etsy shop the count is over 2,500 reviews at the same 4.9-star average, from ten thousand orders over five years.

Satin is a weave, silk is a fibre

"Silk hat liner" is one of the most searched phrases in hat supply, and most of the liners sold under that name, in vintage hats and new ones, are satin. That is not a trick. Silk is the thread, spun by the silkworm. Satin is a way of weaving any thread so that long floats of yarn lie on the surface, which is what gives the fabric its shine and its slip.

So a satin can be woven from silk, and it can be woven from other fibres; a silk fabric can be satin, or crepe, or twill. When a vintage catalogue lists a silk lined hat, it is usually describing a satin weave with a silky face, because that is the fabric hat factories bought by the bolt. The word people remember is silk. The fabric they are describing is satin. We say so plainly because a liner sold as silk that is not silk is the commonest quiet dishonesty in this trade.

What a hat liner actually needs

Inside a hat the lining has four jobs, and none of them is about the fibre label. It has to be smooth, so hair slides over it rather than catching. It has to hold a gather at the crown tip without going limp, so the liner keeps its dome and does not sag on to the head. It has to take a print cleanly, because the liner is the part of the hat a customer sees when it comes off. And it has to be wiped clean and put back a hundred times without fraying.

A stable satin does all four. A very light dress silk does the first and struggles with the rest. That is the honest reason most hats, including expensive ones, are lined in satin rather than silk, and it is why we sell far more satin than silk and do not apologise for it.

Choosing a satin liner with a silky hand

For a dress hat, a solid black, cream or gold satin gives the classic silk-lined look. For a fedora that will be noticed, choose a paisley, which has been the traditional pattern for a hat interior since the nineteenth century. For a cowboy hat, a western print or a red or turquoise paisley. Piping around the gathered top, in gold or silver, adds the finished look of a good old hat.

Caring for either fabric is the same: spot clean with cool water and a drop of mild soap, dry flat, and put it back. Treated that way a satin liner outlasts the sweatband beside it.