This gold silk cape was made by more than one million spiders. The beautiful cloak took more than four years to create and 80 people were involved in the process. The extraordinary garment - which is naturally gold-coloured - was produced by 1.2million female Golden Orb Weaver spiders and is one of only two such silk textiles that exist worldwide.

Brit Simon Peers and American Nicholas Godley, who live in Madagascar, are the men behind the design. Inspired by 19th century accounts and illustrations they started experimenting with spider silk in 2004 to see if they could revive the lost tradition. Every morning, spiders were collected from the Madagascan highlands and harnessed in special "silking" contraptions.

Trained handlers would then extract the silk from 24 spiders at a time before being taken it to a weaving workshop. At the end of each day, the spiders were returned to the wild. The woven textile is four metres long and the only object of its kind to be created in such a labour-intensive way.