But these silkworms, unlike others that have been fed rainbow ... tweaked the silk production process and made it possible to turn these somewhat freakish threads into useable fabrics.

Originally crafted from silk, brocade is a lustrous ... tweaks like unexpected color palettes (see the rainbow-bright, hand-dyed cotton brocade fabrics currently enjoying a heyday on West African ...

but the color molecules settled mostly in the sticky protein the worms add to their cocoons. That sticky stuff gets washed away before the silk is turned into fabric. Only one dye, named “direct ...

That flag might look like a big piece of fabric to a lot of people but to ... a sign of progress in a place they call home. As the rainbow colors waved in the wind, so did the city’s message.