Why 5 of The World's Priciest Fabrics Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider

from muga Silk and lever's Lace to Japanese Denim and vicunia wall we're unraveling the stories behind the world's most expensive fabrics and textiles our first stop is the Assam region of India the only place in the world where muga silk can be made this Unique fabric has a naturally golden Sheen and comes from the Cocoon of muga silkworms [Music] to make muga silk laborers must unwind amuda caterpillar's cocoon into a single long seamless thread and to make just one sorry about 1 000 cocoons need to be unraveled asari made of mugasil can cost up to sixty five hundred dollars thousands more than other saris but the caterpillars needed to make the cocoons also called muga seeds might be in danger of disappearing and without them Farmers can't produce muga silk at all so why is Moga silk so expensive and what's hurting the caterpillars needed to make it [Music] oh my God logo can only be made in the Assam region of India it's so Central to the culture here that there's even a traditional song about the golden thread movie silk is unique because of its naturally lustrous gold color it can last up to 100 years and it's said to offer protection by absorbing 85 percent of harmful UV rays but these properties also make it more expensive and the labor and expenses required to make mooga silk bump the price even further Thomas has to collect the seed coconuts with a very high price from different parts of the Northeast Assam [Music] because of the unavailability of Moga seeds number one and number two is a huge numbers of manual labor has to be they put in for conducting radiating foreign [Music] they pick a male and female moth to mate and tie the female to the korika a stick with a hook made of thatch grass or twine this is where the female will lay its eggs rearers then transfer the karika to a Psalm tree the host plant for muga worms here tiny Ash colored larva known as chai muga hatch and begin to feed on the leaves but the larva are vulnerable at this stage so farmers need to keep a watchful eye to ensure they can form the cocoons needed to make muga silk [Music] they shoot clay pellets into the fields to keep potential Predators at Bay and protect the larva after one or two months they can collect the mature caterpillars and the missile caterpillars are collected by the farmers at night and they put the caterpillars into some Zales for coconing here at the caterpillars rest and we leave their cocoons for three days until they fully empty the silk glands and enter pupation not all cocoons are used for silk some are stored in the sakuri para a bamboo box for keeping cocoons and moths so farmers can continue breeding muga worms the hatched cocoons are used for rougher Fabrics such as winter clothes and blankets but the most expensive mooga Fabrics come from unhatched cocoons that's because the silk in these cocoons isn't torn and can be unraveled into a continuous thread besides being Limited in which cocoons they can use Weavers also need a lot of them for Weavers who buy cocoons this doesn't come cheap um to produce one kilogram of muga yarn Monica needs 5 000 cocoons which is enough for about five saris [Music] and that one kilogram could take her a week because to make the yarn she needs to reel the golden thread a process that demands Special Care traditionally the Assamese add dried banana peel or Patty thatch Ash to the mixture which de-gums the Cocoon and gives the thread a better Sheen and when it comes to muga the shinier the silk the more valuable it will be two people then use a pangoi to carefully wield the long lucasil threads in a continuous motion reelers gently pull from several cocoons and join the thin strings together to make one thicker thread they must make sure each thread has a consistent thickness where the yarn won't be as valuable finally the rearers load the muga silk yarn onto bamboo looms for asami's women weave it into the desired fabric some of the most intricate sarees made from regular silk can cost 250 dollars in India but the same design on a muga silk fabric can kick the price up into the thousands Lucas silk is the pride of Assam which accounts for almost all of India's muga silk production but the prophets are limited products foreign ERS worked tirelessly to ensure the moths survive it's not only up to them the mugamoth is continuously threatened by the climate crisis mucus silkworms are reared outdoors and exposure to even the slightest change in temperature and humidity can wreak havoc during high temperatures in 2018 Farmers had to delay rearing for 10 to 15 days to avoid silkworm deaths losing this time during Peak commercial season when production is ramping up means producers can end up with less muga silk to sell this is one of the major things in the communities and second is the the pollution and the pollution generated by the Sea Gardens and petrochemicals Tea Gardens use some very destructive chemicals like pesticides herbicides etc etc these chemicals have toxic effects on the muga moth that impact its mortality and ability to reproduce this can threaten the relatively low production of muga silk compared to other expensive Indian made silks like Mulberry silk only about 239 metric tons of mooga silk were produced in India in 2021 compare that to over 24 000 metric tons of Mulberry silk that were produced in the same year according to jatol this doesn't meet Global demand for muga and it drives the price even higher The Limited supply of authentic muga silk has led some producers to fill the Gap with Fakes to combat the rise of fake muga in 2007 the Indian government designated assamuga silk as a protected geographical indication or GI product this means authentic mugasil can only come from a Psalm but chatola doesn't believe it's done much to help assam's muga silk production [Music] silicon is in under the extinction dipped all the habitat areas the hospital sector will be lost totally lost in 2046 that's why jetol and other muga farmers are relying on Environmental Conservation efforts now and in the future to ensure the survival of this Millennia old fabric it takes between one to two months for hiso manabe to dye these threads a deep indigo blue denim made from these threads will maintain this Rich color and Sobo manabe's nails for three weeks that's because manabe uses real Indigo instead of the synthetic dyes most jeans are made with today a pair of momotaro jeans dyed with natural Indigo can cost over two thousand dollars but using real indigo is just one element that can raise the price of Japanese denim each stage of production requires meticulous attention so what exactly makes Japanese denim different and is that enough to make it so expensive in basic terms Japanese denim refers to denim made in Japan but today it often implies Selvage denim the name comes from the way fabric is woven on these old shuttle Looms they weave fabric with a sealed or self-finished Edge hence the name sells Edge it means the end of the fabric won't Fray or Unravel you'll notice a pair of salvaged Jeans by the cuff there's typically a colored line along the out seam sorry this type of denim is made here in Kojima Japan [Music] um utaro is one of kojima's most well-known denim brands but before momotaro makes denim it must first dye the threads the company's most expensive jeans are hand-dyed with natural indigo natural Indigo comes from the leaves of the indigo fera plant dyeing fabric with natural Indigo has been a valued art form in Japan for centuries [Music] [Music] manabe dies 60 rolls of cotton over several days he Rings each role out and hangs it up to dry before dying another foreign [Music] otherwise the color won't be a dark enough blue [Music] dyeing jeans This Way doesn't only take longer it also costs more a kilogram of some synthetic Indigo can cost between four and five dollars depending on the quality natural Indigo might cost 10 times that [Music] um that one bail is only enough to die about 15 pairs of jeans although using natural dye raises the cost of production it has unique effects on genes that can't be produced by synthetic dyes foreign [Music] s have mostly replaced natural ones so jeans still made with natural dyes are often considered a premium product which is partly why mamotaro's Kinton or gold labeled genes are worth over two thousand dollars The increased price of this pair is a nod to the extra effort skill and money needed to dye the threads by hand and get the color just right foreign not all Japanese denim or momotaro jeans are made with natural indigo but even so the price remains high around 200 to 300 dollars for a pair like this and that goes back to the way Japanese denim is woven [Music] before Toyota made cars it made looms like this originally introduced in the 1920s these Toyota looms are no longer made today foreign [Music] like they're working fast weaving fabric this way takes five times longer than weaving on Modern projectile Looms um [Music] despite the Looms being automated an experienced mamotaro technician has to keep a close eye on them as they run he checks to see each Loom is working smoothly and that all the threads are aligned correctly even so it's possible something will go wrong um on top of weaving slowly the Looms produce fabric less than a yard wide that's about half the width of non-selvedge denim so producers need more fabric to make a pair of selvedge jeans this is yet another factor that increases the cost of production and ultimately the final price of the jeans shuttle looms are also less precise than projectile looms but variations in the fabric make each yard unique and ironically that's what gives these genes one of their biggest Appeals While most other genes have a smooth surface Japanese denim is a little bit rougher is While most momotaro genes are made on the automated looms the most expensive Gold Label genes are produced with an even slower more traditional method by hand with an antique Loom it takes one hour for Kazuki Akita to weave just 10 centimeters of fabric while this process raises the price the extra effort gives the genes a distinctly different feel ings is and for denim enthusiasts traveling from Thailand to Tokyo is worth the trip to buy momotaro's most expensive pair usually when you brought a new pair of jeans you feel it's a little bit hard and you you feel like a little bit it's a little bit hard to move at first right but this one even from the start yeah it feels so comfortable like you have worried for sometimes after the fabric is woven by hand or Shuttle Loom it heads to the sewing room [Music] according to heddles on average most other types of denim weigh between 11 and 14 ounces While most denim from Japan weighs 20 ounces a heavier fabric makes Naomi take bayashi's job more challenging is no more [Music] another Cornerstone of Japanese denim is the artisanal nature of the way the jeans are finally formed at mamotaro all the stitching is done by hand [Music] the same goes for adding each copper rivet [Music] the final look and feel of a finished pair largely depend on take bayashi's dedication to detail [Music] shuttle looms are less precise the fabric will naturally have several imperfections but if momotaro's retail stores find anything wrong with a pair of jeans they mark it with a small sticker and send it here to the quality control room takibayashi sits through the flag jeans using a tweezer to repair each marked spot mamotaro is one of around 40 denim makers in Kojima considered the birthplace of denim in Japan while Japanese denim from this city has found a luxury category to call its own the denim industry hasn't been prominent in Kojima for very long foreign [Music] in the decades since Japanese denim has reached far outside Japan today it's considered one of the finest types of denim in the world thousands of individual threads loaded by hand are woven together to create one of the most intricate Fabrics in the world lever's lace but making this lace isn't easy a new design can take three months to produce and depending on the materials one square meter can cost over five hundred dollars despite the premium price the lace industry in France is a fraction of its former size and it's hard to find new lace makers to continue the trade so how is lever's lace made and why is it so expensive lever's Loom six meters long and over 100 years old these looms were invented to match the quality of handmade lace each design is translated from paper into these Punch Cards which are fed into the loom to create a pattern these looms are essential for making lever's lace but there are only a few hundred left today 40 of which are at this Factory in the northern French city of quadri John Brock has been making lace since 1889. we are selling oars we are selling the Fabrics with mainly oars so it's mainly empty but it is why it's so interesting because we have artistic possibility every day we are making something different compared to the other fabric unlike cheaper mass-produced lace designs aren't embroidered on top of fabric they're continuously woven creating a beautifully complex pattern the machine might do the weaving but it takes around 20 people to produce lever's lace it all starts with a design John Brock uses a library of old designs some from as far back as 1925. but it also creates new designs which can take three to five weeks to complete this is the most time consuming part of the process but the most delicate is threading the loom thousands of individual threads feed into the machine detail designs need more threads which raises the price workers load these small discs called bobbins by hand keeping each thread separate and taut is workers Place each bobbin into a carriage and check to ensure consistent weight and tension when we set up a machine we set up more than 15 000 Yarns into the machine we start from scratch we start from zero so we need to put every yarn at the right position once the loom starts running lacemakers are surrounded by an ocean of sound despite being such an old machine each room runs with extreme precision foreign line by line as workers refill it with more thread Loom experts called Tullis are in charge of overseeing the whole weaving process they watch each Loom looking and listening for any tears a mistake at this step could seriously set back production if there's a break Tullis reach into the loom carefully repairing individual threads [Music] Frederick has been working on these looms for 26 years he checks to ensure that the original design is being recreated on the loom personal each step requires an expert but this makes finding new workers challenging um foreign it's a walk of passion and it's for that reason that all the people who work with us most of them spend 15 20 25 years in the same company that's the main difficult things to find for the new generation but even after 20 or 25 years you still learn things it's so fascinating and it's a patient for people [Music] is foreign [Music] is never perfect so it's the inspector's job to spot any mistakes [Music] foreign foreign [Music] these highly skilled workers inspect every inch of the lace and repair each section by hand the repairs must be indistinguishable from the rest of the lace [Music] y liver slaves with no additions cost around 45 to 90 dollars per square meter that's over 10 times the price of mass-produced lace but laced with add-ons like pearls crystals or sequins can cost several hundred dollars more dresses or lingerie made with levers lace usually cost a few hundred dollars at minimum but some can cost a lot more for the outputs of things it can go just no Sky limits in addition to the materials and complicated manufacturing the Looms themselves increase the price lever's looms aren't made today companies have to maintain the Looms that they have it's not impossible to build a lever's loom but the costs required to manufacture it would be more than the demand for the product because of that lace manufacturers rely on existing looms and even share spare parts between companies but the lace industry in France used to look a lot different in the early 20th century there were tens of thousands of lace-related jobs but has production modernized and fashion trends shifted the industry Consolidated to two main parts of France Cadre and Calais today only a few thousand jobs remain and only a handful of the traditional lace producers are left competition from cheaper lace manufacturers has eliminated a lot of the industry many remaining producers focus on the high-end Market I think our customers are really different but we still always looking what's the mass production does our main advantage is to be ahead of the Fashions we work with creative Trends office to know what the fashion will be and we need to anticipate the next fashion trends demand for Jean Brock's lace had actually been increasing for the last few years but the covid-19 pandemic hit the industry hard Brands like Chanel and Ralph Lauren rely on companies that create lever's lace but if demand doesn't increase it'll be difficult to maintain the industry I hope so it will be easier I hope so but I'm not sure we just spent two terrible yes so I hope now it will be a more comfortable to invest and to train the new generation of people this is Kenji he's using centuries-old technique to dye silk for a kimono it's physically demanding but that's not the only challenge he has to match this color exactly making adjustments by eye and it's essential for the fabric inside this Barrel remains White Kenji won't know if he's successful until he opens the lid this is one of over 20 steps required to make a kimono you can buy a cotton kimono for three hundred dollars but a handmade chiso kimono can cost over ten thousand dollars and the company's most expensive kimonos cost 10 times that we followed 10 Artisans step by step to find out what makes these kimonos so expensive versions of the kimono have been worn for centuries today the kimono is viewed as formal wear worn on special occasions like weddings or coming of age ceremonies part of the reason why giso's kimonos is so expensive is that they're made entirely out of silk it takes around 12 meters of silk to make a single kimono chiso collaborates with a network of Highly skilled artisans each step is done by hand and can take weeks to complete this intricate design starts out as a simple sketch [Music] foreign foreign Hiroshi transfers it to the silk this step is called Drafting and it can take up to two weeks Hiroshi ensures that the design looks good when the kimono is worn not just on a flat surface these lines are critical to the design process but you won't see them on the finished kimono this paint is washed away after acting as a guide for other artisans Hiroshi has 37 years of experience but he's still very critical of his work s Jesus kimonos are known for their complex patterns painted using a technique called using Artisans trace the design with a glue-like paste that separates colors when the silk is painted it also gives a characteristic white outline to parts of the design s it's patients work but I says it's all worth it when she sees the finished kimono foreign this is just the start of a month-long process pieces of the kimono are sent off to different Artisans across Kyoto each Artisan must perfect their section while keeping in mind the final design at yoko's Workshop she dies the base of the kimono with these large brushes [Music] Yoko and her assistant blend the edges working around the design but this isn't the only way kimonos had died some are dyed using a technique called shibori which creates bold colors and distinct shapes but it's very tedious work before Kenji starts working Artisans sew up the silk and bind this Barrel tomorrow the same hiromi is sewing forms the edge of the design then Matsuyama wraps the silk along this wooden tub and tacks it into place before he attaches the lid this step is key to preventing dye from bleeding inside [Music] now it's time for Kenji to dip the silk [Music] he works quickly but constantly monitors the silk to ensure it's dyed correctly if the barrel remains in the die for too long the colors will start to bleed Kenji cuts a strip of fabric Compares it to the Swatch and adjusts his die accordingly foreign is complete Kenji lifts the lid and examines his work all of these steps combine to tell a story through the design of the kimono themes of nature or the seasons are common while some designs reference poems or plays foreign skilled and delicate steps is the use end dying tomoko has 25 years of experience making kimonos [Music] um has been practiced for centuries and has become an iconic feature of high-end kimonos the technique is more expensive and time consuming than screen printing but chiso's customers are willing to pay a premium for the result long-sleeved kimonos with complicated designs can take two to three weeks to paint on them all right [Music] now [Music] she said come on [Music] the final step in the process is for Artisans to apply gold leaf and embroider complex designs embroidery alone can take weeks to months depending on the design the more embroidery a kimono has the more expensive it will be when all the pieces fall into place the finished kimono is a work of art a testament to the skill of each Artisan who has worked on the silk um foreign takes 6 to 12 months to make and those hundreds of hours of Labor are reflected in the price most range from seven thousand dollars to fourteen thousand dollars but some of chiso's elaborate designs cost over one hundred thousand dollars and the accessories traditionally worn with a kimono increase the price even more [Music] um foreign customers looking for less expensive kimonos might choose to rent or to buy refurbished ones which usually cost a few hundred dollars but still provide good quality buying a cotton kimono or one without complex using is much more affordable these kimonos are often worn for Less formal events but current demand for expensive complex kimonos is low kimono sales declined dramatically in the 90s during Japan's economic crash and the industry has continued to shrink today it's around 14 of the size it was in 1975. she so sells around 4 000 kimonos each year but the relevance of the Garment in Modern Life is limited um further complicating matters The Artisans it relies upon to maintain production a getting older foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] whose wool is worth more than gold here in Northern Bolivia a single kilogram of this wool can sell for 370 dollars and once the product hits shelves in Italy a coat made of vikunya wool can cost around thirty five thousand dollars but hurting communities in the abilobumba mountain range can only share vicunas once every two years and while conservation efforts have ensured that bacunas thrive in their natural habitat this can mean danger for communities rounding up the wild herd conservationists and local communities working together and why is the wool they produce so expensive the cunya wool is extremely fine compared to other Furs the cunya wool density is measured in microns an adult facuna produces wool that measures 13 microns compare that to alpaca wool at 22 to 24 microns or llama at around 30 microns this ultra fine fur is what makes vikunya wool the most expensive textile in the world but to produce fine wool like this the first step is capturing the herd the hurting day begins with a traditional ceremony in comes the fleet is [Music] the community began preparing for this capture a month in advance in addition to monitoring the herd and tracking its movement they must build what's called a capture chute this acts as a herding device to move the vacunya toward a temporary enclosure is a uh at all foreign s are properly grappled they can be sheared their fur must be at least two and a half centimeters long for collection in an effort to organize the hurting and conservation of the vikunya a management board was created Richard ponciano serves as the authority of his province of the economy embracing the herd of the kunias is important because raising camelids like alpacas is an essential way of life here in Bolivia unlike alpacas the kunias cannot be domesticated and they are much more difficult to come by but the good news is that the herd is growing as of 2019 the bacuna cow in apple obamba was over 12 000 and it is estimated to have grown another nine percent since then this is an astonishing number given that at one point there were only about 65 acunias left in this region the vacunias in the Apple obamba integrated management Natural Area or anmi are now protected and the years in between shearing are entirely focused on conservation [Music] in El año foreign to a technical manager overseeing 18 different communities in the areas that share bikunias managers like umber make sure that communities are equipped to produce the best possible product therefore getting the best price for their yield foreign other technical managers make sure the communities are equipped with mechanical shearing tools before 2019 cheering was done with scissors and took much longer however there are still communities using scissors in the highlands where Umber and his team can't carry their power generators no matter what they always try to send one train cheerer out to each Community this helps ensure the highest quality product and keeps pecunias and shearers safe foreign after a checkup on their health the pecunas are released back into the wild Bolivia offers three kinds of fiber mainly to European markets these are raw fiber cleaned fiber and pre-carding fiber pre-carting fiber increases the initial cost of the product by 25 this is a process that involves manually removing bristles from the fleece pre-carting one to two fleeces takes a full day foreign Uber hopes to see more industrialization of the vicunia wool industry in Bolivia in the future for now this is the final stage many residents of Apple obamba will ever see more than 90 of this fiber is Bound for Italy where it will be spun into designer textiles at Laurel Piana is but nearby Artisans crafting garments out of the hunya wool would like to see more bacuna fiber stay local they purchase it at a national level with an invoice from the state this gets shared among at least 10 craftspeople who are only able to receive two or three kilograms per year um for Mary producing a sweater from vicunia fiber is the same amount of Labor as producing an alpaca sweater but you can earn a lot more from selling bacuna products she says the state doesn't allow her enough raw material to make a significant profit selling baklunda products to get enough material to meet demand some Artisans turn to the black market is foreign garment she sells locally bolivianos in Bolivia that's a far cry from the eleven thousand dollars that it costs to purchase a vacunya shawl from Laurel Piana but the vacunya industry is still growing in Bolivia as more communities develop the skills and tools necessary to produce the fiberia is

Channel: Business Insider

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Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, So expensive, Fabrics, Textiles, Expensive, Pricey, International, World, Earth, Money, Clothing

Id: RnVt7CaR3tU

Length: 50min 19sec (3019 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022