Well, instead of Melbourne, today I will write about Vietnam, where you can have a delightful holiday.
This is Hoi An, on the central coast of Vietnam. It is an old trading town, with Japanese, Chinese and French influences. This is where tourists go to to have clothes made to measure. You can buy items made from silk, cotton, wool or blends. Expert tailors cut and sew whatever you want made. Good material is not cheap, but it is cheaper than you could buy a custom made item in Melbourne.
Here is a basket of silk worms, which are fed a rich diet of mulberry leaves. They produce silk to wrap around their cocoon. This is then removed and spun into silk threads.
Here are the the cocoons waiting until they have made their silk thread- up to about a kilometre if it.
Then the larvae are put in warm water to soften, so the silk thread can be removed.
It is then coloured and woven to make beautiful clothes like this…
At this time of the year it is often wet, but warm. A boat trip or a walk round the old town can be quite a damp experience…