Fashion silk can not be made inside the USA at a profit. Nothing can change my mind about that except actually producing MS at a profit. IMO it can not be done.
I wouldn't be so quick to rule out fashion as a customer. At least not the High Fashion mentioned in the last SS. From $7000 hand bags to $1100 slippers and $1500 T shirts there's no limit to what people (at least rich people) will pay for anything that's got the "right" label on it.
designers are raising prices purely 'to increase their appeal'.
We live in a world where the super rich are getting richer and growing in population every day. If our little worms are spinning out a product that the rich "just have to have" I don't think there will be any problem selling what we produce in Texas to them. It might even make them feel patriotic causing them to buy more. Do you really thing those people are going to send there kids to school in an outfit that cost less then $1000? They'd be laughed out of the country club.