Can You Machine Wash Silk?

Yes, you can — carefully. Silk survives a machine wash perfectly well as long as you use a cold, gentle or delicate cycle, zip it into a mesh bag, and reach for a mild pH-neutral detergent rather than your usual powder. What silk won't survive is the rough treatment cotton shrugs off: hot water, a hard spin, bleach, "bio" detergents and the tumble dryer. So the honest answer is "yes, on silk's terms" — and for a tightly woven mulberry silk pillowcase, those terms are easy to meet.

Here's how to do it without shortening your silk's life — and when you're better off washing by hand instead.

So can you machine wash silk or not?

You can, provided the machine does the gentle things and none of the harsh ones. Silk is a natural protein fibre — chemically close to your own hair — and it's perfectly washable; it just can't take heat or aggression. A cold delicate cycle in a mesh bag, with a gentle detergent, cleans silk thoroughly while sparing the fibres. The catch is that most of what a washing machine normally does — heats the water, spins hard, sometimes adds enzyme detergent — is exactly what damages silk. Set those aside and the machine becomes perfectly safe. Our own mulberry silk pillowcases are woven densely enough to take a careful machine wash, which is one of the quiet advantages of a higher-grade silk.

How to machine wash silk safely

The whole method comes down to removing the heat and the violence. Step by step:

• Turn it inside out and zip it into a fine mesh laundry bag so it can't snag, stretch or tangle with other items.
• Choose the delicate, hand-wash or silk cycle — and make sure the water is cold, below 30°C.
• Use a small amount of pH-neutral or silk-specific detergent — a capful, not a scoop. Never bleach.
• Skip the fabric softener (it coats the fibres and dulls the sheen) and the high spin.
• Wash silk on its own, or only with other delicates — never with zips, denim or towels.
• Lift it out promptly, press the water out gently, and lay it flat or line dry in the shade.

That's it. The mesh bag and the cold delicate cycle are doing almost all of the protecting.

When you should hand wash instead

Some silk is better kept out of the machine altogether. Hand washing is gentler still, and it's the safer choice for delicate or embellished garments, fine slip dresses, anything with loose threads or beading, and silk that's heavily stained and needs spot attention. Sturdy, flat items — pillowcases, scrunchies, eye masks — are the most machine-friendly, because there's little to snag and the weave is robust. If you're ever unsure, hand washing in cool water with a little gentle detergent is never the wrong answer; the full routine is in our silk pillowcase care guide.

What actually ruins silk in the wash

It's worth knowing the specific culprits, because avoiding them is most of the skill. Silk's protein structure breaks down in heat and in alkaline (high-pH) conditions — the reason textile conservators wash protein fibres cool and near-neutral. So the things to keep well away from silk are: hot water, "bio" or enzyme detergents (those enzymes are designed to digest protein, which is precisely what silk is), bleach, fabric softener, the tumble dryer, wringing, and drying in direct sun, which fades the colour. Avoid that list and a good silk piece will outlast years of washing.

So how often, and what about drying?

Wash a silk pillowcase about once a week — more if your skin is acne-prone or you sleep hot — and always air-dry it flat, away from heat and direct sun. Owning two and rotating them means you can keep to that schedule without ever sleeping coverless, and each case is used half as hard. Machine or hand, the principle is the same: cool, gentle, and never rushed by heat.

If you'd like silk that's built to take a regular, careful wash, our LS Silk AU mulberry silk pillowcases are 22-momme, 100% mulberry silk and OEKO-TEX certified — densely woven for exactly this kind of everyday laundering.

Silk isn't high-maintenance so much as low-tolerance for harshness. Give it cold water, a mesh bag and a gentle cycle, and the machine you were warned to keep it away from turns out to be perfectly safe after all.