Every Thread, Considered

We make silk scarves, bandanas, and pocket squares from pure natural fibers — nothing synthetic, nothing compromised. Every piece that carries the Laqlaq Istanbul name is made from pure materials and finished by hand, because we believe the materials should be as considered as the design.

This is what goes into each piece, and why.

Pure Silk, Two Weaves

We work with two silk fabrics, each chosen for a specific purpose.

Silk Twill — Our Scarves and Pocket Squares

Our 90×90 cm scarves and 35×35 cm pocket squares are woven in silk twill: a diagonal weave that gives the fabric its subtle surface texture, its natural sheen, and its ability to hold rich, saturated colour.

Twill is the benchmark fabric of luxury scarves for good reason. It's structured enough to hold a knot, substantial enough to drape with weight, and durable enough to be tied, folded, and carried daily without showing wear. Our twill is woven at 16 momme — a unit of silk weight that translates to roughly 69 grams per square metre. This is the weight that the most respected silk houses in the world have settled on as the standard for a premium scarf: heavy enough to feel luxurious in the hand, light enough to wear comfortably in three seasons.

Colours on twill appear deeper and more saturated than on lighter silks. The diagonal weave structure creates micro-channels in the fabric surface that hold dye evenly and reflect light at shifting angles — which is why a twill scarf looks subtly different in morning light than it does under evening lamplight.

Crêpe de Chine — Our Bandanas

Our 50×50 cm bandanas are woven in crêpe de chine: a plain weave with high-twist threads that give the fabric a soft, matte, lightly textured surface. Where twill holds a shape, crêpe de chine follows one. It's lighter, more fluid, and drapes with an effortless quality that suits the way a bandana is worn — loosely knotted at the neck, wrapped through the hair, or tied casually at the wrist.

Crêpe de chine carries colour differently than twill. Prints appear softer, slightly more diffused — closer to watercolour than oil paint. For the smaller canvas of a bandana, this works beautifully.

Where Our Silk Comes From

We're straightforward about this. The world's finest mulberry silk comes from the Zhejiang and Jiangsu regions of China — these provinces have the longest silk-producing tradition on earth and supply the raw material for virtually every premium silk house in Europe and beyond. Our silk is no different.

What makes a Laqlaq Istanbul piece distinct is what happens after the silk reaches us. Our scarves are designed in Istanbul, printed in Turkey using reactive dyes that bond permanently with the silk fiber, and finished entirely by hand in Turkish ateliers. The design, the colour work, the craftsmanship — that is where our identity lives.

We use the term "100% silk" because that is precisely what it is. No polyester backing, no synthetic blends, no weighted silk. Pure mulberry silk, dyed with reactive inks, finished without chemical shortcuts.

Hand-Rolled Edges

This is the single most visible mark of quality on any silk scarf, and it's where we refuse to cut corners.

Every laqlaq scarf, bandana, and pocket square is finished with hand-rolled edges — a technique known in the trade as roulotté. The process is exactly what it sounds like: a skilled artisan takes the raw edge of the silk, rolls it twice toward the back of the fabric, and secures it with tiny, nearly invisible stitches by hand. One scarf takes 60 to 90 minutes to complete.

The result is an edge that no machine can replicate. Hand-rolled edges have a softness and slight irregularity that gives each piece its own character. The roll is rounder, the stitches are finer, and the corners — the hardest part to execute well — sit sharp and clean without bulk.

What to look for when you hold one of our pieces:

  • The roll itself. Run your finger along the edge. It should feel smooth and even, with no thick spots or flat sections. The fabric is rolled twice — you can feel the layering if you press gently.

  • The stitches. Turn the scarf over. On the back, you'll see a line of small, evenly spaced stitches in thread matched to the print colour. On the front, they should be virtually invisible.

  • The corners. This is where craft shows itself most clearly. Each of the four corners must be tucked and folded cleanly — no bunching, no loose thread, no excess fabric. A well-finished corner lies flat and holds a crisp 90-degree angle.

  • The thread. The colour of the stitching thread is matched to the edge of the print, so the finish disappears into the design rather than framing it. This is a small detail, but it's the kind of detail that separates considered work from careless work.

We hand-roll every edge because at our price point and quality standard, there is no acceptable alternative. Machine-stitched edges are faster and cheaper, but they produce a flat, rigid finish that looks and feels fundamentally different. The hand-rolled edge is not a luxury flourish — it is the minimum standard for a silk piece that deserves to be called premium.

Printing and Colour

Our designs are printed using digital reactive dye technology. Reactive dyes form a permanent chemical bond with silk protein — they don't sit on the surface, they become part of the fiber. This is what gives our prints their depth and ensures they hold their colour through years of wear and careful cleaning.

After printing, every piece is steamed at high temperature to fix the dyes permanently, then washed to remove any unbound pigment. This two-step process — steaming followed by washing — is what separates prints that last from prints that fade after a season.

We test every production batch for colour fastness: resistance to washing, light exposure, and friction. Our benchmark is a rating of 4 to 5 on the international ISO scale — the highest tier — across all categories.

What We Don't Use

Some commitments are defined by what you choose not to do.

  • No synthetic fibers. No polyester, no nylon, no viscose, no modal. Every laqlaq piece is pure natural fiber.
  • No weighted silk. Some manufacturers add metallic salts to silk after processing to recover weight lost during finishing. This makes the fabric heavier but weaker and shorter-lived. Our silk is pure-dyed and unweighted.
  • No machine-rolled edges. Every piece is hand-finished.
  • No compromise on dye quality. We use only reactive dyes rated for premium colour fastness. No disperse dyes, no pigment prints, no shortcuts.

Built to Be Worn

We don't make silk pieces for display cases. We make them to be worn — knotted, draped, folded, tucked into a jacket pocket, wrapped through hair, tied to a bag handle. The materials and methods we've chosen are designed for exactly this: silk that feels better with time, edges that hold through years of use, and colours that stay true.

Every piece is inspected before it leaves our atelier. Every edge is checked by hand. Every print is verified against our colour standards. What reaches you is what we'd carry ourselves.