Crepe Silk Print Shirt

The print is the thing here. It is small, tight and ornamented rather than floral — green on a ground that reads black at a distance, with a scatter of ochre flecks where the light crosses it — and the stall has given it a name instead of a number: 墨绿绮梦, dark green dream. The cloth is 双绉, crepe de chine, which is silk woven from an over-twisted yarn so the surface comes back with a fine pebbled grain; that grain is what keeps this shirt matte, because the light breaks on it instead of running across it, and the print sits down inside the texture rather than on top of it. The cut is loose, gathered at the neck onto a narrow band, with sleeves that fall to an elasticated cuff. Two things are visible in the photographs and worth saying plainly: the body is lined, so the printed shell and its darker lining are both part of the hem, and the sleeves are not — a single layer of crepe that you can read a hand through. Wear it over a camisole, or over nothing and let the sleeves do what they do.

A print with a name

This market numbers its prints — 9981, 2800-1, D-77 — because a print is a file rather than a thing. This one is called 墨绿绮梦, dark green dream, which suggests somebody drew it and kept it rather than sending it out to be copied. The motif is small and close: an ornamented repeat in green with ochre flecks, closer to a printed damask than to a flower.

双绉, and why it does not shine

Crepe de chine is woven from a hard-twisted yarn, and the twist makes the cloth come back at you with a fine grain. Silk with a grain is silk without a glare: the light scatters off the surface instead of sliding over it, which is why this reads matte and deep rather than bright. Printed silk usually looks like a scarf because of that shine. This does not.

Lined body, bare sleeves

Look at the hem in the first photograph and you can see two layers — the printed shell ends and a plain dark lining shows below it. The sleeves are one layer only and go sheer against a window. That is a deliberate division as much as a cost decision: the body stays decent without a camisole, the sleeve stays light enough to wear in summer.

Details

• Colour: Dark green print — 墨绿绮梦, the name the stall gives the print, and the only colourway
• Size: L · XL · XXL · XXXL, as the stall lists them. No garment measurements are published; DETAILS TO BE CONFIRMED
• Material: Mulberry silk in a crepe de chine weave (双绉), as the stall names it. No percentage, no momme and no test report is published, so weight and composition are DETAILS TO BE CONFIRMED
• Fit: Loose through the body, with a gathered neck on a narrow band and sleeves that end in an elasticated cuff

Care

• Dry clean, or hand wash cool with a pH-neutral soap and do not let it soak. Silk keeps its grain far better than it keeps a machine cycle.
• Iron on the reverse while still slightly damp, on a cool setting. A hot iron flattens crepe permanently, and the grain does not come back.
• Keep it out of standing sunlight. Silk yellows where light rests on it, and a dark ground shows it first.

Why we chose it

Because the stall named the weave — 双绉, crepe de chine — in the title instead of just writing silk, and because the print has a name of its own rather than a file number.

One piece is fine. Buy a single piece at the price shown, or ask for a trade quote from ten units — written by a person, never read off a table.