History of Silk in Italy
Little known to the people outside the fashion industry, Como, rather than Milan, is the best place to shop for silk. Designer accessories like ties and scarves are particularly worth considering. Since the turn of the century, Como, a 2,000-year-old Roman town on the southwestern shore of the lake of the same name, has been the center of Italy's silk industry. In Como, top-quality silk clothing and accessories can still be purchased for 25 to 75 percent less than in the United States.
The styles and technological innovations made by Como's silk manufacturers may be new, but the raw material has remained constant for more than 4,000 years. Filaments of 300 to 1,600 yards extruded by silkworms and used to form their cocoons have been the basis of coveted fabrics.
In the sixth century silkworms were smuggled out of China in bamboo canes and brought to the eastern Mediterranean by two Persian merchants disguised as priests. From there the labor-intensive business of breeding silkworms is believed to have spread to Sicily in the 12th century and then north. Master weavers were already working in Florence in the 13th century, and in the 15th century Venice became a silk processing center. Venetian merchants traded extensively in silk and encouraged silk growers to settle in Italy.
In the 16th and 17th centuries Milan assumed prominence as both the Italian and European silk capital, and toward the turn of the century Como became the country's largest producer. The Como silk district has been processing silk since the end of the 16th Century. Thanks to the long tradition and the remarkable expertise of the local artisans, the area around Como developed the most prestigious schools of technology and sericulture art in the world. But the costly business of raising silkworms was discontinued in Italy after World War II, and today the fibers are imported from China ready to be woven, dyed and finished.
Today, Como is the world leader in quality silk products production and produces 85 percent of all the silk made in Italy. Designers from virtually every fashion house rely on silk from Como. A good deal of the credit for a designer's success should go to the silk houses. While the designers may come to the manufacturers with guidelines and inspiration for the types of fabric designs they envision, it is the manufacturers' artists in Como who actually execute the designs. The silk worked in the province of Como has been the most valuable silk in the world.