Fiber and Fabric
Though not traditionally known for fiber fabric production, Monaco adopts a strategic approach by outsourcing high-quality materials from countries such as China and the United States to meet the demands of its luxury-focused tourism and resident market. It also values and preserves the regional fabrics that hold cultural significance. Monaco, being in the Mediterranean area, is well-known for its silk trade, a simple yet timeless part of its high-end lifestyle. In this region, thereās a special type of mussel that produces a silk-like material in small amounts. Local people have learned to use these mussels to create a unique fabric called āsea silkā or āmussel silkā (Sewport, 2023). Sea-silk comes from the hair of Mediterranean pen shells and has a distinct brown-gold color. The fibers they gather for weaving are actually the slimy filaments called byssus that the shellfish use to anchor themselves to the seabed (Pasche et al., 2018). The process of this raw material requires harvesting in the waters of the Mediterranean coast and consists of weaving with byssus which can be dyed with other natural colors.
Apparel Production
Since sea silk includes a very lengthy process and requires a certain sea shell called Pinna Nobilis (see Figure 3), it is considered very rare. Sea silk is a unique material made through a careful process that includes cutting, cleaning, drying, combing, and spinning the fibers (Maeder, 2018). After all the hard work, sea silk creates delicate fabrics, such as scarves. However, this luxury comes at a hefty price with its involvement in gathering many giant mollusks, with some reports indicating that making a single hat may require sacrificing several of these creatures (Posnett, 2019). Therefore, the manufacturing process takes a while because sea silk is one of the rarest threads because it is only found in a particular creature.
Our Product
With this indigenous fabric of sea silk, our company has created a line of scarves, allowing the production of sea silk scarves to deeply be rooted in the cultural heritage and artisanal skills of the native communities who have mastered the art of working with this unique marine material. Skilled weavers use these threads to craft our luxurious sea silk scarves that will be sold through e-commerce and in Club Monaco stores all over the globe.
