Clothing Manufacturing Technology – The Science Behind Decorating Your Body
Introduction
The human body is the perfect gift which nature has given to mankind, but human beings added another dimension to make that body look more beautiful, or as someone pointed out the other day – “God made man & man made clothes”. Clothes are so important to mankind that we cannot think of living without them (no offense to the naturism advocates). Our ancestors were happy wearing a few leaves around their waist and torso but as civilization advanced, new techniques of clothing manufacturing technology came into the picture. Currently fashion rules the roost in the modern world and clothes are an important aspect of fashion apart from other paraphernalia.
Manufacturing of Clothes
Thankfully to science and technology, we don’t have to go everyday into forests to collect leaves to wear for the next day. I cannot imagine the plight when I hang my pair of trousers in the cupboard only to find that they have decayed the next morning. Modern day clothes are made of several different types of fabrics which are based on different parameters such as cost, climate, weather, delicacy, fashion and so forth. It would not be possible to describe all cloth manufacturing techniques in this introductory article, but a broad overview of the same would suffice the purpose here.
Cloth manufacturing is not a single phased process but consists of several phases. Since clothes are no longer solely for covering the body but for decorative purposes as well, designers make attractive patterns which are used for printing on the cloths and the form of colours, shades, designs, and text. These designers may or may not have anything to do with the actual production of the garments, but they use their artistic and creative talent to suggest what sort of patterns and colour combinations would have an aesthetic appeal to the public or a particular individual. Many famous personalities have their own designers who specifically design clothes based on the personality of that person.
In the actual production of the clothes, several types of materials may be used which are either available naturally or manufactured artificially. In the naturally occurring materials the most popular ones include wool and cotton. Wool as you must have imagined, is collected from several animals depending on the geography of the region and mainly include animals such as sheep, goat, camels etc. Cotton, on the other hand is grown in plants like many other vegetables and fruits. Of course several processes are used before either wool or cotton can take the shape of a fabric which gracefully adorns your body. Leather and fur are other natural materials which are used to make clothes, although their use is somewhat controversial and many animal rights organisations are totally opposed to the use of these materials in the clothes manufacturing industries.
Learn more about the interesting cloth manufacturing processes, both for natural as well as artificial substances in the following articles:
