These hungry silkworms are eating their way to sustainable（可以忍受的） fashion for Switzerland. Their owners are venturing（敢于） into sericulture, breeding（使繁殖） silkworms for Swiss silk（蚕丝）. It's really fascinating to watch the whole cycle develop. You really see that in such a short time with any other agricultural（ 农业的） product. The idea is to produce homespun（手织物） sustainable（可以忍受的） fashion in Switzerland. It could avoid the huge carbon（碳） footprint（脚印） caused by importing silk（蚕丝） from China.
I hope my generation and future generations can bring about change to produce more sustainably and locally（在本地）. Uali came up with the idea of breeding silkworms, which are actually caterpillars（毛虫）, the larval form of the domestic（国内的） silk（蚕丝） moth. The lab space he needed for his experiment was rather testing for his family at first. He was rearing（培养） his silkworms in our bathroom, over the bathtub. Our daughter and I, well, we didn't find（找到） it that practical. Uali and Bettina resolved（解决） the conflict（争论） by moving their silkworm trays（(浅)盘） to the garage, the humble（卑下的） origin（起源） of many a grand（宏伟的） project.
I'm a farmer, but I have no land. That's always a problem, right? So I decided to focus on special cultures where you can produce a lot on very little land. I'm also a textiles（纺织品） engineer, so silkworms are a good match. It was partly（部分地） out of necessity（需要）, but it's also fascinating. It's really fascinating to watch the whole cycle develop.
So it was a combination（结合） of necessity（需要） and fascination（魔力）. This is the sound of 12,000 hungry caterpillars munching（ 用力咀嚼）. The idea of making（使） money from sericulture was a bold（大胆的） one, especially in Switzerland. Silk is actually from China（瓷器）, where production originated（引起） thousands of years ago. Bettina and Uali had to face resistance（阻力） from a powerful lobby（大厅） at first. The reactions from the textile industry were mostly negative.
It's crazy. It will never work. It's just a hobby. It was mostly negative. But over time, their attitudes changed. Of course, we're niche（壁龛）.
We're very niche doing this. But we have revived（复兴） the idea of making（使） silk（蚕丝） in Switzerland again. Not everyone is talking about it, but some are. The silk yarn（纱） they spin（纺） is destined（ 指定） for the world's catwalks. Fashion designer Rafael Cuto, a star in Switzerland, is a strong advocate（提倡者） of Swiss silk（蚕丝） in the textile（纺织品） industry. He's showcasing（陈列橱） his collection at the Swiss Design Awards in Basel, the leading national design competition.
For years, Rafael hunted down the best materials in the archives（档案馆） of museums and companies. He decided on Swiss silk. Silk is a great material to work with, and it has something special compared to other fabrics（织品）. I prefer to work with natural fibers（纤维） and materials, or to upcycle old materials and leftovers. In 2019, Rafael won the award for Fashion and Textile Design. At the Swiss Design Awards, sustainability has become an essential criterion（标准）.
This is a silk shirt. It's vintage silk, produced in Switzerland and everything is dyed（染） by hand. It's gorgeous（ 华丽的）. Silk from China is out of the question for him. Thousands of kilometers of transport means a huge carbon footprint. As a top designer, he's given（做） Swiss silk（蚕丝） a name.
But the silk has also given him a name. I was lucky enough to win several different awards, and I was able to set up my own studio in Zurich. This collection, for instance（实例）, was developed during the pandemic（全国流行的）, so this is the first time I've been able to display（陈列） it live. I also made this video to present my work on film, because there were no opportunities to hold an exhibition or fashion show. And this is the first time I've seen a fashion show. Moulbury tree leaves（许可） are the silkworm's favorite food.
Experiments feeding them other types of plant have all failed. The mulberry tree is robust（精力充沛的）, but there is one challenge. Silkworms are so sensitive（敏感的） because they've been specially bred（使繁殖） for thousands of years, purely（纯粹地） to create silk（蚕丝）. They're sensitive to insecticides, of course, but also to fungicides（杀真菌剂） and other chemicals. They make the caterpillars sick and kill them. This is also why sericulture is not possible in many places.
We're only under difficult conditions, because insecticides can drift（漂流）. From large apple orchards（ 果园）, for example. These chemicals settle（安排） on the mulberry leaves（许可）, we harvest（收割） the leaves（许可）, and the silkworms get sick. Silkworms are voracious（狼吞虎咽的） creatures（生物）. It takes 450 kilos of mulberry leaves to raise his 12,000 silkworms. Uli often has to bring in new supplies.
Many of Uli's neighbors are traditional farmers, such as Peter Bulma. His cows produce milk for cheese, a classic（ 经典的） Swiss product. And unlike many of their colleagues, he understood the silk project right from the start. If you talk to historians（历史学家）, you will hear that silk（蚕丝） was produced in Switzerland many years ago, with silkworms. Uli has founded（创立） a silk（蚕丝） producers association（协会） called Swiss Silk（蚕丝）. So far, 11 production sites in Switzerland have joined the association.
He hopes the project will grow. It was important for Swiss silk to set a regional（ 地区的） example, which would extend（延长） beyond（在…的那边） Switzerland and include nearby（附近的） European countries, where a complete supply chain could be built up. This would mean far less transport than usual in these times of globalized trade, where silk comes from China or Brazil. We're not trying to save the world.