Pitfall 1 - Fake winter silk duvets

A winter duvet is a duvet designed to protect you from the cold in an unheated bedroom during winter. The standard weight for a silk duvet is 500g/m². Some websites offer "winter" silk duvets whose weight of 360g/m² is totally inadequate for winter. In reality, 360g/m² is the weight of a mid-season or temperate duvet. On our site, for example, you'll find 320g/m² mid-season duvets, just 40g/m² lighter.

Pitfall 2 - False grammage

The indicated weight normally corresponds to the weight of the silk inside the duvet. To save silk, some brands indicate the weight of the duvet including filling and casing. This misleading practice is to the detriment of the customer, who once again ends up with a duvet that's lighter than expected.

Pitfall 3 - Poor-quality silk

There are different types of silk with very different thermal properties. The best silk is mulberry silk. It's highly absorbent, insulates against both heat and cold, and breathes. If the seller doesn't indicate the type of silk, you can be sure that it's not mulberry silk, but rather wild silk or habotai silk. These low-cost fibers are very mediocre and do not allow for hand manufacturing.

Tip: Quality silk duvets will always have a zipper to check the quality of the silk filling.

Pitfall 4 - Machine-made silk duvets

Machine-made silk duvets are topstitched. The topstitching is used to maintain a silk filling made up of broken and cut short fibers, extracted mechanically. But short fibers have lower thermal properties. In addition, topstitching creates thermal bridges and prevents the silk filling from breathing and playing its full insulating role.

Pitfall 5 - Washable silk duvets

Sellers of silk duvets with topstitching often claim that they are "machine washable". This is not true. Whether the duvet is topstitched or not, the silk filling cannot be washed in water. The topstitching disguises the deterioration of the silk fibers, but in reality, care after care, the silk fibers degrade and lose their thermal properties.

Pitfall 6 - Buying 3 duvets instead of 2

Most duvet sellers encourage their customers to buy a summer duvet, a mid-season duvet and a winter duvet. The latter is not only the most expensive, but also the most bulky. We recommend buying the four-season which includes a summer duvet and a mid-season duvet which, once attached, replace the winter duvet for substantial savings.

Trap 7 - Chinese websites

Ordering from a Chinese site is certainly the riskiest of all. The most common problem is not receiving anything at all, as many customers can testify. The second problem is having your parcel intercepted at customs and having to pay customs duties, VAT at 20% and a possible fine for non-declaration.

Discover our quality handmade silk duvets:

We hope this article will help you make the right choice and avoid disappointment. To find out more, you can also read our article dedicated to 4-season silk duvets.