Changing cultural values and market forces have decimated Japan’s 1200 year old kimono industry. Only three artisans remain — all over 80 years old — who can make a kimono from scratch. Most production is now outsourced to China, and rarely is any fabulously expensive Japanese silk used. “All we can do now is keep trying to make kimonos so beautiful that they will no longer be able to resist it,” says a 102 year old artisan with no apprentice, “What choice do we have?”