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All About The Luxury Fabric Silk
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Jan 16, 2025
Silk is an ancient fabric used in both the fashion and home decor business. Learn with Anita how many kilos of silk cocoons it takes to make one kilo of silk and why silk continues to be an expensive luxury fabric.Ā You can read more about What Are Some Things That Can Be Made From Silk? š https://mondoro.com/what-are-some-things-that-can-be-made-from-silk/ š #GlobalTradeGal #Silk #Mondoro Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/globaltradegal)
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silk is considered one of the finest
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Fabrics globally and it's expensive
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because it has limited availability
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meaning that it really is something that
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not every country can produce and it is
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something that is
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[Music]
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limited hi this is Anita from the global
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trade gal today we're going to talk
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about fabric yes we're going to talk
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about fabric that material that you have
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to for your clothes and tablecloths and
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all hosts of other things because so
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many things are made out of fabric in
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today particular I want to talk a little
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bit about silk and why silk fabric is
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expensive and then some of the things
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that Silk can be used for if you're
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going to be purchasing any type of
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product whether it's a product that uses
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Fabric or you're going to be you know
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decide you're going to design some
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clothing you're going to design some
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home decor you're going to design
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anything that could use fabric it's
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important that you understand a lot
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about the fabric that you're going to be
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using and today I'm going to talk a
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little bit about silk just because I
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really love silk and I think silk is
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quite an interesting
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fabric you know silk is considered one
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of the finest Fabrics globally and it's
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expensive because it has limited
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availability meaning that it really is
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something that not every country can
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produce and it is something that is
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limited this is going to be true for
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anything you're going to be buying for a
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product if it has a limited
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availability there usually will be a
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premium price attached with it it has to
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do with the principle of supply and
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demand
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you know extracting silk from the
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Cocoon proteins is actually a very
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expensive and labor intensive
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process it takes 5,000 silk worms to
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produce one kilo of silk let me repeat
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that because I think that's an amazing
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statistic 5,000 silk worms to produce
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one kilo of silk that means that you
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need to have a lot of silk worms to be
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able to produce your silk tie your silk
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scarf your silk jacket or or whatever it
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is you know totally around the world
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there's about
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168,000 kilog of silk that's produced
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yearly that's you know equal to
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somewhere around you over 300,000 pounds
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China still continues to be the largest
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producer of silk and they produce over
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126,000 kilog you know behind that is
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actually Vietnam and India but you can
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see that theirs is still quite a bit
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less than China which produces probably
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about 75% of all the silk in the world
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is coming from
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China the production of silk is
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extremely labor
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intensive you know they have to the silk
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has to be you know uh you have to have
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the caterpillars to spend the cocoons
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and you have to harvest it you have to
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extract the silk threads from the Cocoon
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and actually all of these caterpillars
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have to eat what's called a malberry
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tree so you know the malberry trees are
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also Limited in their supply so all of
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this helps to be able to limit a product
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like
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Silk and it and it it means that it's
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extremely labor intensive to
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produce it also means that silk
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production is a relatively slow process
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it is a very old process that's been
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around for thousands of years and really
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a lot of the processing hasn't changed
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that much in that amount of
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time so silk is one of these things
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which really is extremely labor
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intensive what's fascinating about silk
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is there's so many things that you can
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make out of silk or things in the past
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that have been made out of silk that
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it's really quite a versatile
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fabric so you know here are some things
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that can be made out of silk of course
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you know fashion is one of the
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industries which is used a lot for silk
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you know everything from silk shirts and
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ties and blouses if you're interested to
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see a list I've written a Blog about it
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what things are made from silk and you
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can see a list of a lot of the basic
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products that are still made from silk
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today you know silk pajamas silk jackets
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silk scarves silk ties you know also for
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the home decor industry any of you that
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are in the home decor industry like I am
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you know thec are Sil you know pillows
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so cushions um silk quilts and
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comforters
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pillowcases lamp shades upholstery
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fabric silk curtains a lot of people
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still use silk curtains silk blankets um
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it's used for silk wallpaper silk wall
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coverings and trimmings and even jewelry
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has been made out of
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silk you know there's some interesting
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uses of silk that I never even knew
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existed which I want to talk about
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because it shows how sometimes
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Innovative people can be about things
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are how people were in the past in the
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past a lot of people use silk for
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parachutes and the reason why they use
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silk was because silk was a lightweight
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Fabric and it was extremely strong of
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course today the parachutes are made of
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nylon but in the past you know silk was
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used to be able to make
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parachutes silk was also used for
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gunpowder bags I had no idea about this
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but the reason was is because when you
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had the gunpowder for the bullets you
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know you didn't want to have it in your
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pocket you didn't want to have it in
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some other bags that that you know could
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have problems so they' put gunpowder in
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these small little silk uh pouches so
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that the gunpowder wouldn't rub together
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and explode so it was used as a way to
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be able to protect the
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gunpowder today silk is being used in
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bike tires you know for a long time bike
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tires have been using cotton but there's
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been um some silk has been used for
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these casings of
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high-end um you know track tubular tires
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for the racing bikes and several of the
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people that have used these have said
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that they really love silk because silk
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has made for a lot smoother ride than
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the cotton ones I find this fascinating
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because I myself am a cyclist and I
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enjoy cycling and I had no idea that
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there were bicycle tires that are really
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considered premium bicycle tires again
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but because they're more expensive than
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of course the other variety but there
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are many of the professional bike racers
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now who have been saying that they
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prefer to have the silk
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tires because I'm a lover of History I
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want to also tell a little history or or
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something that I find fascinating about
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silk and if anyone has been to Thailand
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you need to stop by and you need to see
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the Jim Thompson house there and Jim
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Thompson came to Thailand in the 40s I
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think it was during World War II and you
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know he was sort of a bit of a um he was
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a creative person he had been an
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architect and he began to see the silk
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Weavers there in Bangkok and he started
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to design fabrics for them and began to
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say hey I think the fashion houses in
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New York would be interested in this and
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they were and so he built up quite a a
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very good silk business there so even
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still today in Thailand you can visit
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the Jim Thompson House you can find out
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and learn more you about Jim Thompson
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and you can also go and you can visit
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his shop there in Bankok
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Thailand what is fascinating about this
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with Jim Thompson not only today is he
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considered one of the top silk brands in
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the world for Home Furnishing home decor
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and fashion and not only does he have
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many great designs that are still being
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used today but in the 1960s Jim Thompson
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disappeared from the highlands in
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Malaysia and he was never found his body
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was never found and nobody knows exactly
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what happened to him there are some
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people that think that maybe he was
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known to be a spy and so he was killed
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as a spy because he had done some work
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supposedly for what would have um been
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something like the CIA or done some
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Secret Service work and there's other
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who think that maybe a tiger at him they
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really they do not know what happened to
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him it was one of the largest manhunts
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ever
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in Malaysia to try to find him in the
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highlands and they found no traces of
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him at all he just disappeared off the
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face of the Earth but yet today his
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legacy and his life continues to live on
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through the Jim Thompson brand and the
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Jim Thompson house which is located in
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Bangkok Thailand so if you happen to go
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visit Bangkok Thailand do stop into the
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Jim Thompson shop which is still on Sur
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Wong Road and look at the amazing silk
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products that are being manufactured
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there and also take the time to go see
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the Jim Thompson house which is full of
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some wonderful Thai artifacts and is a
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wonderful Thai style house his legacy of
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silk continues to live on through the
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Jim Thompson brand well this is Anita
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from the global trade gal we hope you've
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enjoyed a little bit this information
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about a product known as
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silk if you enjoyed this look at the
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link below and look at some of our
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recent uh blogs that we've written about
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silk also tell your friends about us
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subscribe to our podcast we'd love to
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have you be part of our community we'd
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love to have you join with us and we
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really also appreciate you for listening
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thank you so much for listening and
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being part of our community we truly do
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appreciate
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[Music]
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you
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