The complete guide
How to Choose a 19 Momme Silk Pillowcase That Actually Fits Your Pillow
The problem with most pillowcases
You wash your hair, you go to bed, and by morning it has been rubbed against a cotton weave for seven hours. Cotton is a fine fabric for a lot of things, but under a magnifier its surface looks like a ploughed field. Every time you turn over, your hair and the side of your face drag across those ridges. That is why you wake up with hair pointing in directions it did not point in the night before, and why a pillow crease can still be on your cheek while you are making coffee.
A silk pillowcase changes the surface, not your routine. The fibre is smooth, the sateen weave is flat, and things slide instead of catching. That is the whole idea. It does not require you to do anything differently. You just swap the case.
What momme actually measures
The number you will see on every silk pillowcase listing is momme, written as mm or momme, and here it is 19. Momme measures weight. Specifically, it is the weight in pounds of a piece of silk 45 inches wide and 100 yards long. The detail does not matter much. What matters is that a higher momme means a denser, heavier fabric.
Silk bedding generally runs from about 16 momme at the light end to 25 momme at the heavy end. Sixteen is thin. It feels slippery enough but it can look flimsy over a plump pillow and it does not wear as long. Twenty-two and 25 momme are lovely and noticeably more substantial, and they are priced accordingly.
Nineteen momme is where most people land, and for good reason. It has enough weight to drape over a pillow with a bit of structure rather than vacuum-sealing itself to the shape. It feels like proper fabric in the hand. It washes and holds up without feeling delicate to the point of anxiety. If you are buying your first silk pillowcase and want the best 19 momme silk pillowcase experience without overthinking it, this is the sensible middle of the range.
You will also see thread count mentioned, and the maker lists 600 here. Thread count is a cotton measurement that got borrowed by the silk market. It can be counted in ways that inflate the figure, so treat momme as the number that tells you more.
Why mulberry silk, and what 6A means
Mulberry silk comes from silkworms raised on a diet of mulberry leaves in controlled conditions. The result is a long, even, unbroken filament. Wild silks give you shorter, more irregular fibres, which makes a fabric with character but not the glassy smoothness people buy silk bedding for.
Grade 6A is the top of the common maker grading scale. It refers to the quality of the raw filament, how long it is, how even it is, how few defects it carries. This fabric is listed as grade 6A, 19 momme mulberry silk. Put those together and you get the two things that make a pure silk pillowcase feel the way it should, a good fibre woven at a useful weight.
One thing worth checking on any case you buy is whether both sides are silk. A fair number of products on the market use silk on the sleeping face and a cheaper backing underneath. This one is silk on both faces, so it does not matter which way up it goes on the bed.
Sizing, and why Europe makes it complicated
This case is cut to 50 x 75 cm, about 20 x 30 inches. That is a standard continental size and it will cover a great many pillows. But pillow sizes in Europe are genuinely inconsistent. You will find 50 x 70, 50 x 75, 65 x 65, 40 x 80 and 80 x 80 cm pillows all sitting on beds within a short drive of each other. Older homes often have the big square 80 x 80 pillows. Newer bedding sets tend to go rectangular.
So measure. Lay the pillow flat, press it down a little, and measure corner to corner in both directions. Then compare. If your pillow is 50 x 75, this is an exact match. If it is 50 x 70, the case will fit with a few centimetres of slack, which some people actually prefer because the pillow is easier to get in and out. If it is 50 x 90 or 65 x 65, look for a case cut to those dimensions instead. Forcing a pillow into a case that is too small stresses the seams and the fabric, and silk seams are not where you want to find out about tension.
The zip question
Silk pillowcases close in one of three ways. Envelope flaps are common and cheap to make, but the pillow works its way out over a few nights and you get that half-exposed corner. Ties look nice in photographs and come undone. A hidden zip, which is what this case uses, sits in the seam, holds the pillow fully inside, and leaves a flat clean edge.
The practical advantage is that the pillow stays put. The practical thing to remember is to close the zip before washing, because an open zip in a machine will snag whatever it finds, including the pillowcase itself.
Who this suits
People with long hair notice the difference first. Hair that would otherwise catch on a cotton weave tends to stay roughly where it was when you lay down. People who run warm at night often like silk for the cool first touch, which comes from the flat surface conducting heat away quickly. People who simply like how a good fabric feels will get on with it too.
The dusty pink is worth a thought of its own. It is muted rather than bright, closer to a soft rose with a bit of grey in it than anything candy coloured. In a bed made up with white or cream, it reads as a warm accent. Against grey or natural linen it reads as almost neutral. If you want a pink silk pillowcase that does not dominate the room, this is the kind of tone that behaves itself.
Looking after it
Silk is not difficult, it just has rules. Cool water. A mild detergent made for delicates, with no enzymes, no bleach and no brighteners. No fabric softener, which coats the fibre and kills the sheen. Hand washing is the gentlest option and takes about five minutes. If you use the machine, close the zip, put the case in a mesh bag and run the gentle cycle.
Do not wring it out. Press the water out between your hands or roll it in a towel. Line dry away from direct sun, because strong sunlight is hard on silk dyes. If you want to press it, use a low iron on the reverse side while the fabric is still slightly damp.
Watch out for snags at the bedside. Rough fingernails, ring settings, watch straps and velcro are the usual culprits. If a thread does pull, work it back through from the wrong side rather than cutting it.
Most people end up owning two. One on the bed, one in the wash, and you never have to go back to cotton on laundry day.
The short version
Nineteen momme is the practical middle of the silk range, substantial without being expensive. Grade 6A mulberry silk on both faces means a smooth surface whichever way the case lands. The hidden zip keeps the pillow in and the edge tidy. The dusty pink is quiet enough to live with white, grey or linen bedding.
The only real decision left is the size, and that one is on you. Measure the pillow flat before you order. If it comes back at 50 x 75 cm, this case is cut exactly for it.