Cotton Shortage

In sadder news, the Financial Times reports that India has once again banned export of cotton.  India is blaming speculators fixing prices and China's stockpile of cotton reserves.  What does this mean?  Well, like the last time they banned export in 2010 it's going to lead to higher fabric prices and more synthetic blends as companies try to reduce their costs.  I wonder if more rayons will be sold, too, since they're comparable to cottons or if they'll get more expensive too (I guess it depends on whether they use cotton cellulose or another cellulose to make their product).  Perhaps it was just me, but there seemed to be a slight dip in silk prices as well (or maybe it just seemed cheaper now that cotton cost so much).  Silk has certainly risen in price since 2010, though, but the inflated cotton prices stayed the same, so maybe this will at least stop the silk inflation.

Video Update

I'm still working on tracking down pictures for the rest of my WorldCon/DragonCon costumes, so instead of those updates here's some fun clothing news:

40's Era Dress up for auction reveals a great history: it was made of a Nazi flag stolen for a Danish spy woman by her American soldier suitor. The story of the woman, and the dress, is amazing.

Snopes talks about the origins of sagging pants and what they mean culturally.

FIDM has a "20 years of acquisitions" exhibit up. If you can't go there's a catalog available on their website.

CanineHybrid on LiveJournal posted a video of the fursuiting panel from NanDesuKan. It's very interesting and informative!


And, speaking of panels, here's part 4 of my 5 part dyeing panel from DragonCon:

Making Humans Bulletproof

http://io9.com/5830664/this-is-bullet+proof-spider-silk-skin-+-made-from-goats-milk-yes-really

A scientist is trying to make humans bulletproof. She genetically modified goats to give milk that had spidersilk protien, then she milks the goats and turns the milk into a spidersilk fiber mesh that she grows human skin cells on, making the skin incredibly strong - strong enough to be bulletproof!


There won't be many more updates here until Monday when I return from WorldCon, but I'll be posting notes from my panels when I can!