英国新闻听力 竹制服装（在线收听）

Bamboo Clothing

THE HOST: Now, bamboo until recently was something you made furniture out of or watched a panda bear chewing into for a snack. But now this solid substance is being re-cast as a fabric for the future. Silky feeling, softer than cotton, bamboo cloth is even being recognised for its anti-bacterial qualities. Rich Delano is founder of Bamboo Textiles. He says he was the first to create the cloth and explained to the BBC's Natalie Resrahee how he came up with the idea.

RICH: I was working in China for a wood fibre company and they basically told me after a period of time, “look we can't afford you any more, we don't need you any more.” That was probably the worst day of my life but also the best day of my life because that is when I thought you know what I will do, I'll start my own company. I'll start it with bamboo. No one was doing bamboo anywhere in the world.

NATALIE: And what made you think oh bamboo, that's something I should try?

RICH: You know what, I started thinking about natural resources and sustainable resources and knowing my business was fibres and knowing all the different fibres that were out there in the market place and knowing that bamboo was not out there in the market, I figured that if I could spend time developing bamboo, it could be something in the future that not only myself but many others could develop into garments and apparels. So I thought what I'll do, I sell fibre and yarn. But for six months no one wanted to buy the fibre or yarn. No one wanted anything to do with the fibre. I was trying to sell all over the US and all over the world, and everyone would look at it and think not interested, not interested, not interested. But as soon as I made some T-shirts then the whole ball game changed. Because once I had something that someone could feel how soft it was and how wonderful it was and how it made their body feel once they wore it. Right away, then obviously my company turned around.

NATALIE: So as you say, it's soft and people have said it feels silky. Apart from that what are the other properties of this fabric?

RICH: I would say another property that bamboo has is that it keeps your body temperature really cool. So what happens is that when you are wearing the shirt or wearing the garments on your body, your body temperature doesn't seem to rise. An example would be of one the special properties of bamboo, when we are silk screening or printing on our shirts, we'll put a cotton shirt through an oven to dry the ink onto the shirt and the cotton shirt will come out really hot when it comes out of the oven. When we are silk screening a bamboo shirt and it is going through the oven, it actually comes out kind of cool. So it doesn't retain a ton of heat.

NATALIE: And who is this going to be for? Is this a luxury good or is it mass market thing?

RICH: I think right now it is kind of at the stages where it is in between. It's still middle class because of the price. It does cost a little bit more than just regular cotton. So right know it is basically a luxury or a middle class type of garment right now. You're not going to see it in the lower end retail, at least not for the next, I would think, 5 or7 years before it goes into the lower mass mass market.

主持人：直到最近，在大家眼中，竹子还仅仅是做家具的原材料或是大熊猫嘴里的零食。但是现在，人们正赋予这种结实的材料新的功能，制作纺织品。竹子做的布料有着丝一样的触感，比纯棉制品更加柔软，人们甚至发现它还有抗菌功能。里奇·德拉诺是竹制纺织品公司的创办者，他自称是第一个用竹子织布的人。他向BBC的娜塔丽·瑞斯拉伊讲述了这个想法的由来。

里奇：我曾经在中国的一家木质纤维公司工作，做了一段时间之后他们告诉我，“瞧，我们雇不起你了，不需要你再在这里工作了。”那大概是我生命中最糟的一天，但同时也是最棒的一天，因为就是在那个时候，我明白了接下来要做什么，我要开自己的公司，从开发竹子开始。当时世上还没有人拿竹子做商品。

娜塔丽：那么，是什么让你想到，啊，竹子，这就是我要用的东西?

里奇：你知道，开始，我只是想到要找天然的可持续使用的资源，我要做的是纤维的生意，我对市场上已有的纤维种类了如指掌，而我清楚这其中没有竹子。我觉得要是我花些时间来开发竹质纤维，那么将来，不只我自己，很多其他的人也能用它来制作服装服饰。于是我想，好吧，就这么干，我来卖竹质纤维和竹子纺成的纱。我卖了六个月，但是没人愿意买这些东西，没人想要这些纤维制品。我尝试把销售的范围扩大到全美甚至全世界，可大家都会在看上一两眼后表示没有兴趣，没有兴趣，还是没有兴趣。然而，当我用这些织品做了批T恤衫，局面马上就发生了变化。这是因为，人们在穿上这样的衣服后，立刻就能感受到这种材料是多么柔软，它贴在皮肤上的感觉有多舒服。我的公司当即就翻身了。

娜塔丽：就像你说的，这种材料很柔软，而且人们说它具有丝绸的触感。除此之外，它还有什么独到之处呢？

里奇：我想，竹制织品的另一个特点是，它可以让身体感觉凉爽。穿上竹织品做的衬衫或外套，你不会觉得闷热。我们可以用一个例子来证明这一点。当我们在衬衫上印图案时，得让衬衫经过微波炉以烘干上面的染料，经过这道工序，棉制衬衫会变得很烫。而当我们用同样的方法处理竹制衬衫，它仍旧可以保持较低的温度。所以说这种材料不会积存很多热量。

娜塔丽：那么，竹织品主要面对的是哪个消费群呢？它是种奢侈品还是大批量生产的产品。

里奇：我想目前应该是处于两者之间吧。由于价格的问题，它主要还是面向中产阶级。比起一般的棉织品，竹织品还是要稍微贵一些。所以眼下它基本上属于一种奢侈品，或是中产阶级人群的服装面料。依我看，最起码在接下来的5年或7年里，在它流入大型集贸市场之前，这种材料不会在底层零售业出现。