The weight of a cloth

Momme is a weight, not a grade. It counts what a fixed length of silk weighs. Most robes are made at sixteen momme. Ours is made at twenty-two.

In the hand the difference is immediate. Light silk lifts when you move and clings when you stop. Heavy silk does neither. It falls straight from the shoulder and stays where it lands.

Weight is the first decision because everything after it follows from weight. The drape. The way the belt closes. How cold the cloth is in the first second and how warm in the tenth.

It costs something. Twenty-two momme takes more thread and more time on the loom. The metre is twice the price. It also lasts about three times as long, which is a plainer way of saying the same thing.

You notice it at four in the morning. The room is cold. The cloth is not.