I remember around 10 years ago I was talking to Peter Nicholson (one of the two brothers who own Atkinsons Irish poplin) about the decreasing number of silk mills available for tie makers to work with. Sadly the trend continues. Although sometimes bankruptcies are not the issue and two companies can merge together.
Recently two of our favorite silks weavers: Fermo Fossati and Bianchi merged together. They are the only two weavers of real grenadine silk in the world and we love working with the two variations of grenadine silk.
Fermo Fossati weaves Grenadine Grossa and Fina silk; and Bianchi weaves Grenadine Prometeo and Piccola silk. The Grossa and Prometeo have a loose weave. and the Fina and Piccola have a tighter weave. All the weaves are equally beautiful. One good thing that happened is that the colors will be kept in stock more often.
If need be we will start growing mulberry bushes, raising silk worms and weaving silk as we used to do a long time ago...