It's 1924 and the young Russian graduate Alexis Sommaripa, like so many migrants to the United States in the period, is looking for something new. He takes a job with a company that’s been in the viscose rayon business for about five years but wants to figure out how to sell it. He finds out that women want it to be less shiny and more soft.

In episode five of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford follows the astronomical rise of Sommaripa - from fleeing the Bolsheviks during Russia’s revolution to becoming a key player in the production of viscose rayon, a fabric that is widely used in fashion today as an affordable alternative to silk.

Gus finds that, although viscose rayon has democratised fashion, it has done so at a significant cost to the environment.

Viscose rayon is made by processing wood pulp with chemicals. This turns it into a viscous liquid, and then into threads. More than 200 million trees are logged every year and turned into cellulosic fabric, such as viscose rayon, according the the organisation Canopy.

With professor of business history Regina Blaszczyk, sustainability expert Claire Bergkamp and extracts from Alexis Sommaripa’s autobiography.

Novel Production for BBC Radio 4
Presenter - Gus Casely-Hayford
Executive Producer - Rosie Collyer
Producer - Tiffany Cassidy
Assistant Producer - Nadia Mehdi
Production coordinator - Francesca Taylor
Sound Design - Rob Speight Show less