Arbre De Soie (L’)

Le Carre Hermes Paris >> Printemps - Ete 1998

The Tree of Silk

All that lives and grows beneath the sun must find its own path, and we all know poor singers who might have become marvelous chefs. Likewise an Asian tree of mediocre fruits learned how to transform itself and found a new career in the textile industry. In partnership with the bombyx - a butterfly without elegance but graced with a workmanlike caterpillar, the mulberry with a flourish produces the silk thread, which, over the centuries, has woven the fabric that acts as a pennant for its renown.

Le Carre Hermes Paris > Automne - Hiver 1995/96

The silk Tree

The story of the mulberry tree is a tribute to a craft which knew how to turn chance to advantage, in its pursuit of finery. The tree gives fruit, but the Orient did not stop there and cultivated it for the shade it gave to the Bombyx, the butterfly whose larva produces silk. Just as the Remiz, a titmouse, weaves a solid nest from all sorts of fibres picked up here and there, so Man manages to create luxury out of happy discoveries.