Women's Clothes Guide S

Page 3 of the Women's S directory is where the letter's largest family begins in earnest. After finishing the short dress color range and the shoulder bags guide, the page turns to silk — and silk occupies most of this page and the next three, because on Apparel Search silk is not one guide but a wardrobe: more than a hundred garments, each with its own page.

Thirty-six guides are listed below. The silk guides share a common foundation — mulberry silk grades, momme weight, charmeuse versus crepe de chine versus organza — but each applies it to its own garment, because a silk blouse fails, fits and launders nothing like a silk ball gown.

A note on silk weights, because every guide on this page uses them: silk is sold by momme, a weight measure where higher numbers mean heavier, more opaque fabric. Blouses typically run 16 to 19 momme, dresses and pajamas 19 to 22, and bedding-grade silk goes higher still. Each guide below names the range that suits its garment, so a shopper comparing two silk blouses at different prices can tell whether the difference is weave, weight or workmanship — the three things that actually separate them.

Silk Dresses: From Babydoll to Ball Gown

The dress run on this page covers silk's full formal range. The silk ball gowns and silk cocktail dress guides handle structure: boning, lining, and why silk taffeta and dupioni hold a silhouette that charmeuse cannot. The silk dress guide is the general introduction — weaves, weights and the bias cut — while the silk babydoll dress, silk blouson tank dress and silk floral dress guides take the softer, gathered and printed ends of the category.

Sitting just before the silk run, the last of the short dresses (green, navy, red and white, and the short length dress guide) complete the color series begun on Page 2 — a reminder that the directory is one alphabetical sequence across all eight pages, whatever family a garment belongs to.

Silk Tops: Blouses, Camisoles and Cardigans

The tops are where most silk wardrobes actually live. The silk blouses guide anchors the group, with satellite guides for the crinkle, embroidered, chiffon, foulard and button-down versions — each weave and surface changes how the blouse drapes and how it must be washed. Silk camisoles and the silk cami top get separate treatment as layering pieces, including the lace-trim and charmeuse versions, and the page closes with the silk cardigan, where silk's lack of natural elasticity becomes the central fit problem the guide solves.

Two umbrella pages frame the family: silk apparel and the first page of the three-page silk clothing series, which continues on Pages 4 and 5 of its own sequence. Those series pages gather silk news, photos and the category as a whole, while the garment guides below them do the detailed work.

Shoulder Bags and What Comes Next

The page's one accessory, shoulder bags, earns its place by use rather than alphabet: strap drop lengths, closure types and the weight problem that decides whether a bag is carried daily or left in the closet. It is also a useful palate cleanser before Page 4, which is silk from top to bottom.

Page 4 continues the silk wardrobe through its most intimate and tailored ranges — charmeuse camisoles, chemises, silk jackets and kimonos, lingerie and loungewear — ending at the silk lingerie guide. If you are building a silk wardrobe rather than browsing, Pages 3 to 6 read as one long shelf, in alphabetical order.