Wth the recent increase in the printing of natural jibres, silk, the ‘queen of fibres’ is again increasing in popularity. Apart from the traditional indusby of printing scarves, ties and evening gowns there is an increasing trend of more silk in the ‘young’ fashion areas. Dyers and printers of silk have, for obvious reasons, kept their ‘know how’, based on many years of experience, secret and little information on the practical processing of silk has appeared in the technical litemture. The present paper will attempt to reuiew the prepamtion, dyeing and printing of silk based on our experiences in the laboratory, pilot plant and in some cases on practical mill