The boffins who created the stuff claim it's reusable and can be used on locally-sourced cotton fabrics for a minimal, 12 percent cost increase given current manufacturing conditions.

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Last year, when cotton prices hit an all-time high due to a global supply crunch, manufacturers first raised prices, then used less cotton and more blended fabrics such as poly-cotton.

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Nano-Tex, a leading company in the field, has developed processes that make traditional cotton and silk fabrics resistant to spills that would normally ruin clothing.

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The Raleigh-Durham-Greensboro triangle is home to the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, Cotton Inc.

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Traditional labels like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein tend to stick to traditional fabrics such as linen and cotton.

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Cotton could also take off, he says, as clothesmakers switch to natural fabrics to avoid the rising cost of oil used in synthetics.

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Sometimes his fabrics haven't been woven for clothing at all, like a Massawa cotton that he found in Eritrea.

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