Jenna Lyons Just Schooled Me on 4 Fun Facts Every Fashion Nerd Should Know

Jenna Lyons may have found a second life as a reality TV star on Real Housewives of New York City, but let’s not forget she’s a degree-toting fashion professional. Armed with a BFA in fashion design from Parsons, Lyons joined J.Crew as a 21-year-old, eventually ascending to creative director and president. Now, she’s sharing her deep knowledge of textiles in a new series of videos on her TikTok and Instagram accounts.

Her educational clips about silk, wool, and cashmere have quickly gone viral among fashion nerds. “Please please please give us more of this?!” one commenter wrote. “Seriously I learned more watching this than three years at Parsons,” another said. I highly recommend following her and watching her informative videos, but I’ve got you covered if you’d like a little cheat sheet. Keep reading for four things I learned from Jenna Lyons’s viral videos.

1. There Are (At Least) 24 Types of Silk

Lyons explained that silk is far from one-size-fits-all. In the first video of her educational series, she named 24 types of silk and provided photo examples for each. To illustrate bias-cut hammered silk charmeuse, for instance, she used an image of Katie Holmes wearing a Philosophy Di Lorenzo Serafini dress from F/W 19 (below). Lyons’s list of the types of silk also includes charmeuse jacquard, broadcloth, cady, brocade, habotai, cady, lamé chiffon, moire, organza, satin jacquard, and more. She wrote out all 24 types in her Instagram caption.

2. Never Use a Machine Washer or Dryer for Sweaters Made of Natural Fibers