Silkbody Long Sleeved Crew and Leg Liner Reviewed

Price: £34.99 each

Weight: 125g per square metre

Features: long sleeve crew neck top and leggings; 72% silk, 15% cotton, 13% merino wool.

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What's It For?

Silk has been around for a while as a thermal base layer fabric, and Merino wool is becoming ever more popular in the UK, with mainstream companies like Craghoppers now using it as well as specialists like Icebreaker. Silkbody have combined the two fabrics, so you get the high moisture absorbency of merino wool with additional softness from the silk. The result is a snug fitting baselayer that provides insulation even when it's wet.

Silkbody is a Kiwi company and its products are now on sale in the UK for the first time. They've only been here since October and Ellis Brigham is currently the sole stockist.

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The Techy Bits

Silk and Merino are both natural fibres made of protein, a bit like your skin, and they work in similar ways. It's often said that Merino wicks well, but in fact it's effective when wet because it can hold a lot of moisture without losing its insulating properties, rather than because it gets rid of the moisture quickly. Silk, similarly, absorbs moisture and spreads it around the garment, so you don't end up feeling clammy.

Silkbody claims that silk fibres can absorb a third of their own weight in moisture without feeling damp.

Both fabrics are anti-bacterial, so they repel substances like sweat, which means you won't pong if you wear them on multi-day expeditions - always handy if you don't want to find yourself huddled in a lonely corner of the pub at the end of the day.

The other main selling point is its softness. Merino wool comes from super-soft New Zealand sheep and its fibres are much finer than those of normal wool, and silk is finer still, so it shouldn't irritate even the most sensitive skin.

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How It Performs

At first touch, Silkbody baselayers are noticeably softer than pure Merino. This sounds obvious given that the majority of the fibre is silk rather than wool, but it reminded us once again that the adjective 'silky' equals 'soft' for a reason. Silkbody layers really are comfortable to wear, even with hyper-sensitive skin, and if they work for us on that count, they'll work for pretty much anyone.

The other immediate plus point was the fit, which is snug. All Silkbody items come in a women's specific version so they hug women's bodies closely as well as men's - always a plus point if you happen to be female. It's worth noting that extra-small Silkbody baselayers really are extra small, without any folds of extra material hanging irritatingly all over the place. That's what you want in a baselayer as it traps a thin pocket of air between the fabric and the skin, providing insulation without leaving room for any loose/cold spots.

The only down side with the design was the lack of flexibility. In the absence of zips, there's no means of increasing ventilation as you warm up. If you're going to be working at a consistent rate, or it's just plain chilly out there, this isn't a problem. If you're planning to vary your work rate a fair bit then you might want something more flexible.

Once we warmed up and started sweating the fabric still worked pretty well though. It's not a high wicking fabric but the silk and merino elements ensure you stay warm even when you're wet. Admittedly, there's a portion of cotton in the make-up of both the crew-neck top and the leggings, and damp cotton notoriously fails to hold its heat. As it's mostly a silk and merino layer (85%), we didn't find this too much of a problem though.

We aren't sure yet what durability will be like as silk sometimes doesn't last as long as synthetic fabrics. Watch this space on that one.

Sizes range from S to XXL in the men's version and XS to XL in the women's. Colours are black, white, red earth, berry and silver.

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Verdict

This is the first Merino and silk combo we've tried and we were pretty happy with the outcome. Silkbody base layers are light, very soft, and they keep their heat even when you break into a sweat or fail to get your waterproofs out in time. The natural anti-pong properties of the fibre mean you don't smell at the end of the day either.

On the downside, the design's very simple, which keeps the weight down, but means you don't have the same flexibility you get with a ventilation zip at the front. The price isn't cheap either, but Merino garments never are - those Kiwi sheep are pretty special, after all. Compared to pure Merino, Silkbody's cheaper, even if it leaves a bigger hole in your pocket than most synthetic layers. As with most things, you get what you pay for.

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Super-soft and warm when wet. A bit pricey; no zips for ventilation.

Performance
Value

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Silkbody web site

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