
Sarong
A tube of cloth that refuses to be tailored—and wins.
Empires, trade routes and the rhythms that half the world's popular music came from.




Nylon is a family of synthetic thermoplastics characterised by amide linkages, melt-processed into fibres, films and moulded shapes. Wallace Carothers made the first one at DuPont in 1935, and women's stockings made it famous. Pure nylon's weaknesses in clothing led to blends with cotton, polyester and spandex, and pure nylon is now rarely used.

