I have a continuing complaint about the poor quality of fabric used in clothes today, so thought I would find out about the timeline of these significant changes in 50 years. I started with silk.
Excerpts from retinkdisruption.com Dropping Silk Stockings Created an Oral Health Revolution from June 30, 2022 by Bradd Libby HERE:
"The leading export from Japan and China from 1850 to 1930 was silk. "According to Debin Ma of Hitotsubashi University, scientifically produced hybrid silkworm varieties, which accounted for less than 10% of Japanese silk production in 1914, were more than 80% just eight years later and over 90% of production by 1924. The Lower Yangtze region of China saw a similarly dramatic change in silkworm varieties, albeit about thirteen years after Japan’s transformation, going from less than 10% hybrid in 1928 to more than 90% in 1937. "Japan’s lead in both the mechanization of silk reeling and in the adoption of hybrid worm varieties gave it the edge to outcompete China. In 1873, China was exporting three times as much raw silk as Japan. By 1930, the situation had completely reversed, with Japanese exports tripling those of China. "The is another part of the ‘pattern of disruption’ we have seen: new technologies are often adopted by outsiders, and the winners from one era of technology can become the losers in the next. Japan adopted machine-reeling of silk fiber before China, and led the development of scientifically bred varieties of silkworms, and so dominated the silk market by the early 1930s. "But this new era would not last long. DuPont first brought Carother’s nylon fiber to market in 1938. DuPont’s nylon stockings first went on sale in May 1940.
"But the attack on Pearl Harbor brought Asian exports of silk to a sudden halt. Soon after the introduction of nylon stockings, the sales of all women’s stockings collapsed as both the supply of Japanese silk abruptly ended and as DuPont diverted all nylon production to the manufacture of parachutes, rope, aircraft fuel tanks, flak jackets, hammocks, mosquito netting, and other products."Nylon became known as “the fiber that won the war.” For four years American women had to ‘make do’ the best they could with substitutes like leg make-up, a cosmetic painted onto the legs to make it look like the user was wearing stockings. "When the war ended, there was such a rush to buy nylon stockings again that fights broke out over the limited supply, the so-called ‘Nylon Riots’. The sales of silk stockings never recovered." And silk today? "Several companies, including the San Francisco Bay Area’s Bolt Threads, are attempting to use genetically modified microorganisms to produce silk proteins. According to Virginia Postrel, “if the endeavor succeeds, silk won’t need to come from insects. It will be brewed in giant fermentation vats like beer. And the process has implications beyond silk. Wool, too, is a protein polymer. So is cashmere. So are countless other fibers we can barely imagine.” And that's just silk!
Perhaps it is the silky petals of Dahlias that make them so beautiful.
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