Bamboo Clothing
THE HOST: Now, bamboo until recently was something you
made furniture out of
or watched a panda bear chewing into for a
snack
. But now this solid substance is being re-cast as a fabric for the future. Silky feeling, softer than cotton, bamboo cloth is even being recognised for its anti-bacterial qualities. Rich Delano is founder of Bamboo Textiles. He says he was the first to create the cloth and explained to the BBC's Natalie Resrahee how he
came up with
the idea.
RICH: I was working in China for a wood fibre company and they basically told me after a period of time, “look we can't afford you any more, we
don't need you any more
.” That was probably the worst day of my life but also the best day of my life because that is when I thought you know what I will do, I'll start my own company. I'll start it with bamboo. No one was doing bamboo anywhere in the world.
NATALIE: And what made you think oh bamboo, that's something I should try?
RICH: You know what, I started thinking about natural resources and
sustainable
resources and knowing my business was fibres and knowing all the different fibres that were out there in the market place and knowing that bamboo was not out there in the market, I figured that if I could spend time developing bamboo, it could be something in the future that not only myself but many others could develop into garments and