Perhaps you thought there wasn’t one more thing that could be made out of soy. It’s in everything; your breakfast cereal, your face cream, your meatless meat. It’s taken on a reputation as a modern miracle. If you were concerned that this chameleon substance might get played out, you can now find it in a new guise: clothing.
Soybean protein is spun into yarn that is purported to be incredibly soft, fluid and durable. The “eco-friendly luxury textile” is being manufactured largely in Asia, where by-products from tofu production can be liquefied and turned into long fibers that behave like their less vegetably couterparts, taking dyes vibrantly and holding their color through washing. The fiber is available to a consumer market both as yarn and in clothing, including “ethical” silks. It doesn’t seem to have infiltrated the mainstream apparel market yet, but given the popularity of soymilk, it’s only a matter of time.
