Word: silks
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Marion Tilton went to work in Japan for SCAP in 1946 to encourage the growth of Japan's silk industry, once the nation's biggest dollar earner. It seemed a hopeless job. A wartime government order scrapping silk looms as nonessential wrecked the industry in Japan, while U.S. scientists wrecked it abroad by giving women a new set of materials which no hard-working silkworm could hope to match...
...Silk to War. Marion Tilton's first job was to convince the textile men that silk stockings were finished. She did this by appearing in nylon stockings at factories, at geisha parties, town banquets, whereever there was an audience. She talked about the new U.S. synthetics, then dramatically rolled down her nylons, pulled, stretched, even washed them. She persuaded textile men to compete in the U.S. in fabrics...
...Japanese silkmen had to change their ways drastically. Their prewar silk fabric was imperfectly woven, poorly dyed, usable only for cheap kimonos, etc. U.S. dressmakers rarely used Japan's silks, preferring the higher quality fabrics of European weavers...
Marion Tilton preached the gospel of quality, and a few Japanese mills began turning out a trickle of high-grade materials which were sent to New York for display, with the proclamation: "Japan is back in the silk business." It was not. Few orders were taken...
...silk evangelist decided that Government sponsorship was not the answer, but private enterprise might be. She signed up Abbot J. Copeland, a merchandising head of Cohama, biggest U.S. silk importer, got the title of Japan manager of Cohama, and resigned from SCAP...