Material ChoicesWinner of the R. L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Award sponsored by the Textile Society of America Asia is renowned for the production of fine handwoven cottons and luxurious silks important items of trade for centuries. In addition to these celebrated fabrics, however, weavers throughout the region produced cloth from ramie, hemp, pina, and banana fibers (including Philippine abaca and Okinawan ito basho), as well as a number of lesser known plant fibers.