III.

Materials Used for Clothing

The development of new materials for use as covering or ornament has played a major role in the history of clothing. In early prehistoric times, the range of materials for clothing was small. Until about 10,000 years ago, people used animal skins for clothing. Single skins were worn as capes thrown around the shoulders; two skins fastened together at the shoulder made a simple garment. Fitted clothes, such as trousers or a parka (an outer garment with a hood), were also made from animal skins. Simple needles made out of animal bone, found in many sites in Europe and Asia, provide evidence of sewn leather and fur garments from at least 30,000 years ago. However, only with the development of textile technology did greater variety become possible.

A.

Beginnings of Textile Production

Tens of thousands of years ago, early humans learned to obtain fibers from wild plants, such as wild flax, hemp, and nettles. Such fibers could be spun into thread and made into cloth textiles. People began to weave fabric during the Neolithic Era, a period that began around 8000 bc. Evidence of early weaving comes from fragments of flax fibers found in Switzerland. In some cultures, people made cloth without weaving, by pounding sheets of bark to produce a soft, flexible textile. The development of agriculture led to the domestication of fiber plants, such as cotton, hemp, and flax.

The production of textiles requires the ability to process fibers, spin them into thread, and make cloth from the thread. Cloth can be made in a variety of ways, such as knotting, knitting, and braiding, but most cloth is made by weaving. Weaving is usually done on a loom that holds long threads (called the warp) under uniform tension so that other threads (the woof or weft) can be inserted over and under them. Many different types and patterns of weaving are possible, depending on the fiber used and the arrangement of the threads. Ancient Egyptians wove their earliest textiles from flax, which produced linen; in southern Europe, the earliest textiles came from wool; in China, from silk; and in India, Peru, and Cambodia, from cotton.

A.1.

Wool

Wool was probably the first animal fiber to be made into cloth. People began to raise sheep for wool about 6,000 years ago. Different kinds of wool, and mixtures of wool with other fibers, can be used to create tightly woven fabrics with smooth surfaces or more loosely woven fabrics with rougher surfaces. In many Middle Eastern societies, nomadic peoples beat wool into a matted fabric called felt, which they used to make clothing, saddle blankets, tents, and other useful items. Sheep-raising nomads in the Middle East also invented carpets made by knotting woolen weft threads onto a linen warp.

Woolens came to be the characteristic textile for European clothing during the Middle Ages, which lasted from about the 5th to the 15th century. People still commonly use wool for clothing, either as pure wool textiles or in blends with other fibers. Wool has obvious advantages as a clothing fabric because it is warm, even when wet, and readily accepts a wide range of color dyes.

A.2.

Silk

China's chief contribution to world clothing has been the development of silk thread and cloth. By 3000 bc the Chinese had domesticated silkworms, feeding them mulberry leaves and unwinding their fresh cocoons to produce long strands of silk fiber. This fiber was spun into thread, and the thread was woven into cloth. By 1500 bc elaborate weaving techniques had been developed, using thread dyed in many colors. Silk is lustrous, soft, and lightweight but warm, and it can easily be dyed. Silk cloth excavated from tombs dating from the 2nd century bc includes gauze (thin, loosely woven fabric), twill (fabric with a woven design of parallel diagonal ribs), damask (fabric woven with patterns on both sides), brocade (heavy fabric woven with an intricate raised design), and plain cloth embroidered with different stitches. Farm women in China of the period were expected to raise silkworms and produce silk as part of their regular household duties.

Silk was used in China, and it was also exported along the Silk Road; this ancient trade route linking China and the Roman Empire was named after the primary export carried on it. The silk trade, conducted between western Asia and the Mediterranean as early as ad 200, brought great wealth to ancient China and sustained the economies of towns along the route. China kept the technology of silk production secret; the ancient Greeks speculated that silk grew on a special tree in China. Christian monks finally broke China's monopoly on silk production in the 400s, when they smuggled silkworm eggs to Syria on their return from China.

A.3.

Cotton

Domesticated cotton first came into widespread use in ancient India around 3000 BC. Much Indian cotton cloth had a simple weave to take advantage of the material’s lightness and airiness; it was then dyed and printed by hand using wood blocks that had patterns cut into them. Indian textiles have influenced textiles of other regions from antiquity through the modern era.

One type of printed cotton fabric, called calico by Europeans (after an Indian textile center named Calicut), was exported from India to Europe in large quantities in the 16th century. Imported Indian cotton became extremely fashionable and undermined the European woolen cloth industry. This helped stimulate the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, as Europeans tried to develop ways of producing cotton cloth by machine more cheaply than it could be made by hand in India.

B.

Regional Differences in Textiles

The materials used for clothing vary around the world. Some textiles are better suited to a particular climate. For example, knitted wool is more useful in cold climates, and thin woven cotton is more useful in warm climates. For most of history, the textiles people used depended on the raw materials available locally, such as flax in Egypt, cotton in India, and silk in China. Beyond considerations of utility and availability, however, people tend to derive regional or national identity from their most characteristic textiles, just as they do from their typical foods. Thus, a European businessman defines himself in part by his woolen suit, an Indonesian farmer by his cotton sarong (skirt of brightly colored cloth, worn wrapped about the waist). For centuries, silk-wearing Chinese people despised wool, which they considered the fabric of uncivilized people. Today, such considerations of identity have weakened amid international trade and international cultural exchange.

C.

Recent Trends in Textile Manufacture

Throughout the 20th century, the trend in textiles has been toward lighter-weight materials. Better transportation and improved indoor heating have made warmth a less important aspect of clothing for most people than it was in earlier centuries. Since 1900 the weight of average clothing fabric has fallen by more than one-third. When people need extremely warm clothes, they tend to wear special outer garments such as parkas that today are typically made of lightweight synthetic materials.

Synthetic materials, produced from chemical compounds rather than from plant fibers or animal hair, have provided less-expensive substitutes for natural fabrics. Synthetic materials can also be superior to natural fibers in strength and durability. Rayon was an early synthetic substitute for silk. Nylon, a synthetic fabric introduced in the 1930s, was another early substitute for silk and quickly became the fiber of choice for women's stockings. Polyester, a form of plastic, was introduced in clothing in the early 1950s. Blended with rayon or cotton, polyester found its first use in so-called wash-and-wear fabrics that needed little or no ironing.

Synthetic fibers fell out of favor in the late 1960s and 1970s, but new kinds of polyester that are more durable and have a softer, more natural feel to them have become increasingly popular in the late 20th century. Synthetic fibers such as spandex have revolutionized clothing by making possible the production of extremely flexible, form-fitting garments. Other synthetic fibers, created for special purposes, range from lightweight but extremely warm or water-resistant fabrics, such as polypropylene and the composite polymer Gore-tex, to woven, bullet-proof fabrics such as Kevlar that serve as body armor.