Issue II of Object is about the Queen of Fabrics: silk. A long standing subject of fascination and furor, silk has inspired merchants to traverse routes entirely unknown in a lust for finery. Known as the Peace issue, it is a journey from the weavers in Banaras to the interiors of China, in an illustration of how something as ubiquitous as cloth can unite people from disparate parts of the world. It is part reportage and part research, at the heart of which lies fashion. Here, the stories pay homage to not just silk, but the idea of veiling and the manner in which cloth is politicised, from France to Iran.