History of Clothing Material

  • History Of Clothing:
    About 30,000 years ago, people started using animal skins for clothing.
  • It is believed that wool was used as early as 6000 years ago.
    Domestication of silkworms to produce silk occurred around 3000 BC in China. In India, cotton came into widespread use around 3000 BC. These fabrics were not stitched.
  • They were just wrapped around the body. Even today, sari, dhoti, and turban are unstitched pieces of cloth.
  • During ancient times, people were not civilized and they used to live in the forest without any clothes.
  • As time passed, humans to protect themselves from the harsh climatic condition, they started to cover their body using bark and big leaves of trees or animal skins and furs.
  • Gradually, humans learnt to make large pieces from grass and plant fibres to cover their waist, nowadays it is known as a skirt. Further, they started to make robes like outfits using animal hairs.
  • Revolution started once the needle was invented, people started to make the clothes from all sorts of fabrics available.
  • Today fabrics are used extensively to decorate windows and curtains with beautiful windows. And also table clothes and bedsheets which makes the interior more attractive.
  • Clothes of different designs, colours, and shapes are available today for clothing. Textile industries are one of the largest industries in today’s world.

  • In earlier times, when people did not have access or the knowledge to process fibre, big leaves and the bark of trees were used by people to cover themselves.
  • After settlement began in agricultural communities, they learnt how to weave. They used grass and twigs to make mats and baskets. Animal hair or fleece and vines were warped together into stretched out strands which were then woven into fabrics.
  • There was an abundant growth of cotton in areas near Ganga, which the early Indians readily used to make fabrics for themselves.
  • There is another plant named flax which yields natural fibres.
  • The early Egyptians cultivated both cotton and flax and used them for creating fabrics. These plants grew near the river Nile.
  • But in those days, people were not aware of the process of stitching. They simply used to wrap around the fabric around different parts of their bodies. Even today unstitched clothes like sarees, dhotis, lungis or turbans are widely in use.
  • It was with the advent of the sewing needle that people learnt how to stitch fibres to make fabric.

Summary

Natural Sources: Cotton, jute, silk, wool, etc., are obtained from natural sources- plants or animals.

Man-made Sources: Polyester, nylon, rayon etc., are man-made materials used for making clothes.

Plant fibres: All the plants have fibres in their body structure, e.g., cotton and mango have fibres on their seed, coconut on its fruit, jute in its stem and banana tree in its leaf.

Animal fibres: Important animal fibres are wool (hair of sheep) and silk (from silkworm).

Yarn: Yarn is defined as a long, twisted and continuous strand composed of interlocked fibers

 Fibre The thin threads or filaments which form a yarn are called Fibres.

 Fabric The material made by weaving the threads from fibres is called fabric.

 Weaving- Weaving involves the making of fabric from yarn.

 Cotton bolls: Fruits of cotton plant are spherical-shaped structures of the size of wall nut which are called cotton bolls.

 Production: Cotton is grown in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

 Climate required: Cotton plants need warm climate.

 Cotton is planted early in the spring.

 Black soil is excellent for cotton’s cultivation.

Ginning- The process of separating the cotton fibres from its seeds is called   ginning.

 Spinning- The process of making yarn from fibres is called spinning.

Retting- The process of rotting the stems of the plants in water to remove the sticky substance and separate fibers is called retting.

  • Clothing materials are obtained from both plants and animals.
  • Fibres are woven to make fabrics and fabrics are stitched to make clothes.
  • Fibres may be natural or synthetic.
  • Cotton, jute, coir, silk cotton, hemp, and flax are some plant fibres.