How to fold a 90 cm silk scarf: what each fold shows of the design

A 90 × 90 cm silk scarf carries 8,100 cm² of design. Folded, it never shows more than half of it, and often less than a fifteenth. Knowing how to fold a silk scarf therefore means choosing what will be seen: a corner, a border or the heart of the design. To measure it without guesswork, we folded our 24 squares in a simulator that follows every point of the silk, every half millimetre, fold after fold. Here is what each fold really shows.

Folding a silk scarf, in figures

Layers are counted in the middle of the folded scarf. The visible share is measured on the outer face: the other face shows as much, taken from elsewhere on the square. The method is explained at the end of this guide.

The triangle: the tip is a corner

Folded along its diagonal, a 90 cm square becomes a triangle 127.4 cm long (90 × √2) and 63.7 cm high. Fold it wrong sides together: each face of the triangle then shows the print, half of the design on each side.

It is the basic fold for a scarf around your neck, on the shoulders or on the head, and this is where everything is decided. The tip, the one that falls on the chest or down the back, is one of the four corners of the square. The centre of the design lies on the fold, in the middle of the long side, against the neck. On a design composed like a painting, the scene appears tilted at 45°. To tie it afterwards, every product page shows seven ways to wear the square, step by step, for example Villa Serena.

Four squares in one

A square has four corners, so four possible tips, and each tip shows a different half of the design. On Lion, two tips out of four show the lion's eye, the third its mane beneath the arch, the fourth the orange blossoms. Before tying, lay the square flat and choose the corner that will hang down.

What the tip shows, design by design

We examined the four corners of each of the 24 designs. Three families stand out:

• A medallion in every corner: Nox Alpina, Noël au pied du Cervin, Lac gelé, Genève, Mappemonde dorée and Pomodoro. Whichever corner you choose, the tip ends on a centred motif: the triangle is neat from every side.
• A medallion in some corners: Lion (the two lower corners), Le monde (three corners, the fourth carries a butterfly), L'Europe (the two upper corners). The corner you choose changes the look of the tip.
• No corner medallion: the other fifteen. The tip shows whatever the design placed there, a branch, a wave, a continuous pattern. Look for the corner nearest the subject: the turtle of Testudo, the trunk of Éléphant, the bird of Toucan.

The bias band: the heart of the design

Start from the triangle. Fold the tip up to the long side, then fold the band over itself, always towards the long side: three folds give an 8 cm band, four folds a 4 cm band. This is the fold for a headband, a scarf tied close around the neck, on the wrist, on a bag handle or as a belt.

What you then see is surprising: a strip taken along the diagonal of the square, from one corner to the other, through the centre. The bias band therefore shows the heart of the design, where the composition is richest, not its edges. On Soleil et citrons, the sun ends up in the middle of the band.

Two figures that change the knot

Length. Folded on the bias, the square keeps the length of its diagonal: 127.4 cm, against 90 cm for a band folded straight. Those extra 37 cm make the difference for a double wrap, around the neck as around the wrist. On the bias, a woven fabric also gives more: the band follows the head more closely.

Thickness. A 4 cm bias band stacks 32 layers of silk in its middle, but 10 layers 20 cm from the end and only 6 layers 10 cm from the end. The knot is tied near the ends: it stays slim, whereas the straight band keeps its 16 layers along its whole length. The two tails that come out of the knot are two corners of the square, the ones that do not form the tip: they are the ones that float.

The straight band: the border, almost alone

Folded in half, then in half again, parallel to an edge, the square gives a straight band 90 cm long. After four folds it is 5.6 cm wide and has 16 layers. Its front shows the strip running along the edge of the square: on a framed design, that is the border and the margin, almost nothing else. Its back shows the next strip, a little further into the design.

The straight band remains worthwhile for squares whose border is a design in its own right, such as the frieze of moons and stars on Nox Alpina. For the others, prefer the bias: for an almost equal visible share (6.1% against 6.3%), it shows the heart of the design instead of its frame.

Folded in sixteen: what you see when you open the box

In its box, the square rests folded in sixteen: a square of 22.5 cm per side, 16 layers thick. Each face shows only 6.2% of it: a corner of the design on top, and the neighbouring section, along the same edge, underneath.

To put it away after wearing it, fold it the same way, in half one way, in half the other, then once more each way, without pressing the folds with an iron. Care is explained in Silk care.

Which fold for which design

Method

The figures in this guide come from a simulation, not from trial and error. Each square is divided into 3.24 million points, one every half millimetre, coloured from the design file. Each fold flips part of the points to the other side of a line and places them under the stack. Then, for every square millimetre of the folded scarf, we read which point is on top and whether it shows the print or the reverse. The simulation assumes perfect folds and silk without thickness: worn, a scarf creases and rounds, but the areas it shows remain those given by the geometry.

The catalogue of the 24 squares, with the place that inspired each one, is published as open data.

Frequently asked questions