It's not as soft as I expected, but the weave is such that it has slip horizontally on the pillow and drag vertically, so I can toss and turn all night but it doesn't slide back out from under my head as I worried it would. I know there's different weaves that can be done in both silk and polyester so the weave doesn't indicate the fabric, but I have a high quality polyester/satin item that is slippier than this and has slip in all directions, and I have a 100% silk item from a big brand that like this, has slip in one direction and drag in the other. This pillowcase feels more like my silk item than my polyester item, so without doing a burn test I believe this is real silk. I thought the print might be tacky but now I plan to redo my bedding to match it.