Ladies making silk, early 12th century painting by Emperor Huizong of Song (a remake of an 8th century original by artist Zhang Xuan), illustrates silk fabric manufacture in China.

The history of clothing and textiles attempts an objective survey of clothing and textiles throughout human history, identifying materials, tools, techniques, and influences, and the cultural signifcance of these items to the people who used them.

Textiles, defined as felt or spun fibers made into yarn and subsequently netted, looped, knit or woven to make fabrics, appeared in the Middle East during the late stone age. From ancient times to the present day, methods of textile production have continually evolved, and the choices of textiles available have influenced how people carried their possessions, clothed themselves, and decorated their surroundings.

Sources available for the study of the history of clothing and textiles include material remains discovered via archaeology; representation of textiles and their manufacture in art; and documents concerning the manufacture, acquisition, use, and trade of fabrics, tools, and finished garments. Scholarship of textile history, especially its earlier stages, is part of material culture studies.

Prehistoric development

Interest in prehistoric developments of textile and clothing manufacture has resulted in a number of scholarly studies since the late twentieth century, including Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean, as well as Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. These sources have helped to provide a coherent history of these prehistoric developments. Evidence suggests that human beings may have begun wearing clothing as far back as 100,000 to 500,000 years ago.

Body lice, which live on clothes, diverged from head lice around 72,000 years (give or take 42,000 years), evidence that humans began wearing clothing at around this time.

Possible sewing needles have been dated to around 40,000 years ago. The earliest definite examples of needles originate from the Solutrean culture, which existed in France from 19,000 BCE to 15,000 BCE

The earliest evidence of weaving comes from impressions of textiles and basketry and nets on little pieces of hard clay, dating from 27,000 years ago and found in the Czech Republic.

At a slightly later date (25,000 years) the Venus figurines were depicted with clothing. Those from western Europe were adorned with basket hats or caps, belts worn at the waist, and a strap of cloth that wrapped around the body right above the breast. Eastern European figurines wore belts, hung low on the hips and sometimes string skirts.

Archaeologists have discovered artifacts from the same period that appear to have been used in the textile arts: net gauges, spindle needles and weaving sticks.

Ancient textiles and clothing

The first actual textile, as opposed to skins sewn together, was probably felt. Surviving examples of Nålebinding, another early textile method, date from 6500 BCE. Our knowledge of ancient textiles and clothing has expanded in the recent past thanks to modern technological developments. Our knowledge of cultures varies greatly with the climatic conditions to which archeological deposits are exposed; the Middle East and the arid fringes of China have provided many very early samples in good condition, but the early development of textiles in the Indian subcontinent, sub-Saharan Africa and other moist parts of the world remains unclear. In northern Eurasia peat bogs can also preserve textiles very well.

Early woven clothing was often made of full loom widths draped, tied, or pinned in place.

Ancient Near East

The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East are fabrics used to wrap the dead excavated at a Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, carbonized in a fire and radiocarbon dated to c. 6000 BC. Flax cultivation is evidenced from c. 8000 BC in the Near East, but the breeding of sheep with a wooly fleece rather than hair occurs much later, c. 3000 BC

Ancient Egypt

Main article: Clothing in the ancient world#Egyptian clothing

Evidence exists for production of linen cloth in Ancient Egypt in the Neolithic period, c. 5500 BC. Cultivation of domesticated wild flax, probably an import from the Levant, is documented as early as c. 6000 BC Other bast fibers including rush, reed, palm, and papyrus were used alone or with linen to make rope and other textiles. Evidence for wool production in Egypt is scanty at this period..

Spinning techniques included the drop spindle, hand-to-hand spinning, and rolling on the thigh; yarn was also spliced.. A horizontal ground loom was used prior to the New Kingdom, when a vertical two-beam loom was introduced, probably from Asia.

Linen bandages were used in the burial custom of mummification, and art depicts Egyptian men wearing linen kilts and women in narrow dresses with various forms of shirts and jackets, often of sheer pleated fabric.

Ancient China

Main articles: History of silk and Hanfu

The earliest evidence of silk production in China was found at the sites of Yangshao culture in Xia, Shanxi, where a cocoon of bombyx mori, the domesticated silkworm, cut in half by a sharp knife is dated to between 5000 and 3000 BC. Fragments of primitive looms are also seen from the sites of Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang, dated to about 4000 BC. Scraps of silk were found in a Liangzhu culture site at Qianshanyang in Huzhou, Zhejiang, dating back to 2700 BC. Other fragments have been recovered from royal tombs in the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600 BC - c. 1046 BC).

Under the Shang Dynasty, Han Chinese clothing or Hanfu consisted of a yi, a narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called shang, worn with a bixi, a length of fabric that reached the knees. Clothing of the elite was made of silk in vivid primary colors.

Ancient Japan

Main article: Yayoi period#Features of Yayoi Culture

The earliest evidence of weaving in Japan is associated with the Yayoi period (弥生時代, Yayoi-jidai^?) , from about 300 BC to 250.

Classical antiquity

Main articles: Clothing in the ancient world and Clothing in ancient Rome

Dress in classical antiquity favored wide, unsewn lengths of fabric, pinned and draped to the body in various ways.

Ancient Greek clothing consisted of lengths of wool or linen, generally rectangular and secured at the shoulders with ornamented pins called fibulae and belted with a sash. Typical garments were the peplos, a loose robe worn by women; the chlamys, a cloak worn by men; and the chiton, a tunic worn by both men and women. Men’s chitons hung to the knees, whereas women’s chitons fell to their ankles. A long cloak called a himation was worn over the peplos or chlamys.

The toga of Ancient Rome was also an unsewn length of wool cloth, worn by male citizens draped around the body in various fashions, over a simple tunic. Early tunics were two simple rectangles joined at the shoulders and sides; later tunics had sewn sleeves. Women wore the draped stola or an ankle-length tunic, with a shawl-like palla as an outer garment. Wool was the preferred fabic, although linen, hemp, and small amounts of expensive imported silk and cotton were also worn.

Iron age Europe

The textile trade in the ancient world

Medieval clothing and textiles

The history of Medieval European clothing and textiles has inspired a good deal of scholarly interest in the twenty-first century. Elisabeth Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland authored Textiles and Clothing: Medieval Finds from Excavations in London, c.1150-c.1450 (Boydell Press, 2001). The topic is also the subject of an annual series Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Boydell Press) edited by Robin Netherton and Professor Gale R. Owen-Crocker of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester.

Early medieval Europe

Main articles: Early medieval European dress and Anglo-Saxon dress

European dress changed gradually in the years 400 to 1100. People in many countries dressed differently depending on whether they identified with the old Romanised population, or the new invading populations such as Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and Visigoths. Men of the invading peoples generally wore short tunics, with belts, and visible trousers, hose or leggings. The Romanised populations, and the Church, remained faithful to the longer tunics of Roman formal costume.

The elite imported silk cloth from the Byzantine, and later Moslem, worlds, and also probably cotton. They also could afford bleached linen and dyed and simply patterned wool woven in Europe itself. But embroidered decoration was probably very widespread, though not usually detectable in art. Lower classes wore local or homespun wool, often undyed, trimmed with bands of decoration, variously embroidery, tablet-woven bands, or colorful borders woven into the fabric in the loom..

Byzantium

Main article: Byzantine dress

The Byzantines made and exported very richly patterned cloth, woven and embroidered for the upper classes, and resist-dyed and printed for the lower. By Justinian's time the Roman toga had been replaced by the tunica, or long chiton, for both sexes, over which the upper classes wore various other garments, like a dalmatica (dalmatic), a heavier and shorter type of tunica; short and long cloaks were fastened on the right shoulder.

Leggings and hose were often worn, but are not prominent in depictions of the wealthy; they were associated with barbarians, whether European or Persian.

High middle ages and the rise of fashion

Main articles: 1100-1200 in fashion, 1200-1300 in fashion, 1300-1400 in fashion, and 1400-1500 in fashion

Renaissance and early modern period

During the 1800s through 1850 the military wore long coats that extended down to the knee. Also they wore hats that resembled the one of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribean.

Industrial revolution and modern times

Main article: Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution

During the industrial revolution, production was mechanised with machines powered by waterwheels and steam-engines.

Sewing machines emerged in the nineteenth century.

Synthetic fibers such as nylon were invented during the twentieth century.

Clothing and textile manufacture expanded as an industry so that such unions as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the Textile Workers Union of America formed early in the twentieth century. Later in the twentieth century, the industry had expanded to such a degree that such educational institutions as UC Davis established a Division of Textiles and Clothing, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln also created a Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design that offers a Masters of Arts in Textile History, and Iowa State University established a Department of Textiles and Clothing that featurs a History of costume collection, 1865-1948. Even high school libraries have collections on the history of clothing and textiles.

Alongside these developments were changes in the types and style of clothing worn by humans. During the 1960s, had a major influence on subsequent developments in the industry.

See also

• Timeline of clothing and textiles technology
• History of Western fashion
• History of fashion design
• History of silk
• Cotton

External links

• Textile production in Europe, 1600-1800, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Things to Wear — A History of Japanese Clothing
• Spindle, Loom, and Needle - History of the Textile Industry
• Australian Museum of Clothing And Textiles Inc. - Why have a Museum of Clothing and Textiles?
• Linking Anthropology and History in Textiles and Clothing Research: The Ethnohistorical Method by Rachel K. Pannabecker - from Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3, 14-18 (1990)
• The drafting history of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing
• American Women's History: A Research Guide Clothing and Fashion
• Historical Clothing/Fabric
• History of Clothing Around the World

Notes

1. ^ Creativity In The Textile Industries: A Story From Pre-History To The 21st Century
2. ^ Cambridge History of Western Textiles, p. 1-6.
3. ^ Barber 1992; see Bibliography
4. ^ Barber 1995; see Bibliography.
5. ^ The History of Clothing - How Did Specific Items of Clothing Develop? by Mary Bellis
6. ^ ^{a b} Travis, John. The Naked Truth? Lice hint at a recent origin of clothing. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
7. ^ Early History of Textiles & Clothing
8. ^ Barber (1994).
9. ^ Chang, Gloria. Stone Age clothing more advanced than thought. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
10. ^ FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY BRINGS COLOR BACK TO ANCIENT TEXTILES
11. ^ ^{a b} Cambridge History of Western Textiles p. 39-47
12. ^ ^{a b c} Cambridge History of Western Textiles p. 30-39
13. ^ Tang, Chi and Miao, Liangyun, "Zhongguo Sichoushi" ("History of Silks in China"). Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed.
14. ^ Textile Exhibition: Introduction. Asian art. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
15. ^ (French) Charles Meyer, Des mûriers dans le jardin du mandarin, Historia, no. 648, December 2000.
16. ^ Piponnier & Mane, p. 114-115
17. ^ Owen-Crocker, Gale R., Dress in Anglo-Saxon England, p. 309-315
18. ^ Ostergard, Else, Woven into the Earth: Textiles from Norse Greenland
19. ^ Payne et. al
20. ^ Payne 1992, p. 128.
21. ^ Spindel, Loom, and Needle - History of the Textile Industry
22. ^ Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union
23. ^ UC Davis Department of Textiles and Clothing History
24. ^ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design M.A. in Textile History
25. ^ Iowa State University College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Department of Textiles and Clothing History of costume collection, 1865-1948, n. d.
26. ^ Union-Endicott High School Library Clothing and Textiles - Fashion History
27. ^ History of 1960s Fashion and Textiles