Portal:Clothing

The Clothing Portal

Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural products found in the environment, put together. The wearing of clothing is mostly restricted to humans and is a feature of all human societies. The amount and type of clothing worn depends on gender, body type, social factors, and geographic considerations. Garments cover the body, footwear covers the feet, gloves cover the hands, hats and headgear cover the head, and underwear covers the intimate parts.

Clothing has significant social factors as well. Wearing clothes is a variable social norm. It may connote modesty. Being deprived of clothing in front of others may be embarrassing. In many parts of the world, not wearing clothes in public so that genitals, breast, or buttocks are visible may be considered indecent exposure. Pubic area or genital coverage is the most frequently encountered minimum found cross-culturally and regardless of climate, implying social convention as the basis of customs. Clothing also may be used to communicate social status, wealth, group identity, and individualism. (Full article...)

Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fibre-based materials, including fibres, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, doctor's gowns and technical applications like geotextiles. (Full article...)

Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. (Full article...)

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  • Emil Rieve (June 8, 1892 – January 24, 1975) was an American labor leader. He was president of the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) from 1939 to 1956, a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1939 to 1955, and a vice president of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1960.

    Emil Rieve was born in Poland and moved to Pennsylvania as a child. He left school early and first became a union member at age fifteen, quickly rising within the union hierarchy. He organized his first strike in 1930 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His aggressive drives to unionize the region's textile workers and achieve union recognition led to the Reading Formula of 1933 in negotiating with the National Labor Board, a precedent which resolved large numbers of other labor disputes. Rieve was a major figure in the unsuccessful textile workers strike of 1934. When the Congress of Industrial Organizations formed the following year, Rieve received international recognition for his efforts to avoid a rift with the American Federation of Labor. (Full article...)

  • Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.

    Different types of fibres are used to produce yarn. Cotton remains the most widely used and common natural fiber making up 90% of all-natural fibers used in the textile industry. People often use cotton clothing and accessories because of comfort, not limited to different weathers. There are many variable processes available at the spinning and fabric-forming stages coupled with the complexities of the finishing and colouration processes to the production of a wide range of products. (Full article...)
  • The Vestiarium Scoticum (full title, Vestiarium Scoticum: from the Manuscript formerly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes, by John Sobieski Stuart) is a book which was first published in 1842 by William Tait of Edinburgh in a limited edition. John Telfer Dunbar, in his seminal work History of Highland Dress, referred to it as "probably the most controversial costume book ever written".

    The book itself is purported to be a reproduction, with colour illustrations, of a 15th-century manuscript on the clan tartans of Scottish families. Shortly after its publication it was denounced as a forgery, and the "Stuart" brothers who brought it forth were also denounced as impostors for claiming to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It is generally accepted today that neither the brothers themselves nor the Vestiarium are what they were purported to be. (Full article...)

  • Cotton (from Arabic qutn) is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor percentages of waxes, fats, pectins, and water. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds.

    The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds. (Full article...)


  • Knitta, also known as Knitta Please, was a group of artists based in Houston, Texas often attributed with the creation of the yarn bombing movement, a type of grafitti where participants wrap public architecture—e.g. lampposts, parking meters, telephone poles, and signage—with knitted or crocheted material. Founded in 2005 by Magda Sayeg and Akrylik, the group held yarn bombings in several cities and continents, and were invited to stage installations

    Knitta grew to eleven members by the end of 2007, and over the next several years held installations in several countries and on multiple continents. However, by the 2010s, membership had dwindled to just Sayeg. (Full article...)

  • A weavers' cottage was (and to an extent still is) a type of house used by weavers for cloth production in the putting-out system sometimes known as the domestic system.

    Weavers' cottages were common in Great Britain, often with dwelling quarters on the lower floors and loom-shop on the top floor. Cellar loomshops on the ground floor or in the basement were found where cotton was woven, as they provided high humidity. A loom-shop can be often recognised by a long row of windows which provided maximum light for the weaver. (Full article...)

  • Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weave produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. Denim, as it is recognised today, was first produced in Nîmes, France.

    Denim is available in a range of colors, but the most common denim is indigo denim in which the warp thread is dyed while the weft thread is left white. As a result of the warp-faced twill weaving, one side of the textile is dominated by the blue warp threads, and the other side is dominated by the white weft threads. Jeans fabricated from this cloth are thus predominantly white on the inside. Denim is used to create a wide variety of garments, accessories, and furniture. (Full article...)

  • ca. 1989, U. S. Department of the Interior photograph

    Alice Littleman (February 8, 1910 – May 26, 2000) was a Kiowa beadwork artist and regalia maker, who during her lifetime was recognized as one of the leading Kiowa beaders and buckskin dressmakers. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Southern Plains Indian Museum, and the Oklahoma Historical Society. (Full article...)

  • 1822 portrait of Whitney by Samuel Morse

    Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States and prolonged the institution. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost much of his profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin. Thereafter, he turned his attention to securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825. (Full article...)

  • Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of Cannabis sativa cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants on Earth. It was also one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 50,000 years ago. It can be refined into a variety of commercial items, including paper, rope, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, and animal feed.

    Although chemotype I cannabis and hemp (types II, III, IV, V) are both Cannabis sativa and contain the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), they represent distinct cultivar groups, typically with unique phytochemical compositions and uses. Hemp typically has lower concentrations of total THC and may have higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD), which potentially mitigates the psychoactive effects of THC. The legality of hemp varies widely among countries. Some governments regulate the concentration of THC and permit only hemp that is bred with an especially low THC content into commercial production. (Full article...)


  • The Aran jumper (Irish: Geansaí Árann), also called a fisherman's jumper or a gansey, is a style of jumper that takes its name from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. A traditional Aran Jumper usually is off-white in colour, with cable patterns on the body and sleeves. Originally the jumpers were knitted using unscoured wool that retained its natural oils (lanolin) which made the garments water-resistant and meant they remained wearable even when wet.

    Use of the word jumper (or other options such as "pullover" and "jersey") is largely determined by the regional version of English used. In the case of Ireland, Britain and Australia, "jumper" is the standard word, "jersey" is used in South Africa and New Zealand, whereas "sweater" is mainly found in tourist shops and in North America. The word used in Irish is geansaí. (Full article...)

  • A knitting machine is a device used to create knitted fabrics in a semi or fully automated fashion. There are numerous types of knitting machines, ranging from simple spool or board templates with no moving parts to highly complex mechanisms controlled by electronics. All, however, produce various types of knitted fabrics, usually either flat or tubular, and of varying degrees of complexity. Pattern stitches can be selected by hand manipulation of the needles, push-buttons and dials, mechanical punch cards, or electronic pattern reading devices and computers. (Full article...)

  • Mamianqun ornamented with Chinese goldwork and embroideries, a traditional skirt of the Han Chinese, Qing dynasty

    Goldwork is the art of embroidery using metal threads. It is particularly prized for the way light plays on it. The term "goldwork" is used even when the threads are imitation gold, silver, or copper. The metal wires used to make the threads have never been entirely gold; they have always been gold-coated silver or cheaper metals, and even then the "gold" often contains a very low percentage of real gold. Most metal threads are available in silver and sometimes copper as well as gold; some are available in colors as well.

    Goldwork is always surface embroidery and free embroidery. The vast majority is a form of laid work or couching; that is, the gold threads are held onto the surface of the fabric by a second thread, usually of fine silk. The ends of the thread, depending on type, are simply cut off, or are pulled through to the back of the embroidery and carefully secured with the couching thread. A tool called a mellore or a stiletto is used to help position the threads and create the holes needed to pull them through. The threads most often have metal or gold leaf wound around a textile core, or are treated with an adhesive and rolled in powdered gold or other metal. (Full article...)

  • Sumptuary laws (from Latin sūmptuāriae lēgēs) are laws that regulate consumption. Black's Law Dictionary defines them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expenditures for apparel, food, furniture, or shoes, etc." Historically, they were intended to regulate and reinforce social hierarchies and morals through restrictions on clothing, food, and luxury expenditures, often depending on a person's social rank.

    Societies have employed sumptuary laws for various purposes. They were used to try to regulate the balance of trade by limiting the market for expensive imported goods. They made it easy to identify social status and privilege, and as such could be used for social discrimination and to stabilize social hierarchies. They could also be used to prevent, or at least reduce, opportunities for political bribery and corruption. (Full article...)

  • Yup'ik clothing (Yup'ik aturaq sg aturak dual aturat pl, aklu, akluq, un’u ; also, piluguk in Unaliq-Pastuliq dialect, aklu, cangssagar, un’u in Nunivak dialect, Cup'ik clothing for the Chevak Cup'ik-speaking people of Chevak and Cup'ig clothing for the Nunivak Cup'ig-speaking people of Nunivak Island) refers to the traditional Alaska Native-style clothing worn by the Yupik people of southwestern Alaska.

    The traditional clothing systems developed and used by the Yup’ik, Inuit and Nuniwarmiut peoples performs similarly to the most effective cold weather clothing developed to date. Yup'ik women made clothes and footwear from animal skins (especially hide and fur of marine and land mammals for fur clothing, sometimes birds, also fish), sewn together using needles made from animal bones, walrus ivory, and bird bones such as the front part of a crane's foot and threads made from other animal products, such as sinew. The multi-functional ulu (semilunar woman's knife) is used to process and cut skins for clothing and footwear. Women made most clothing of caribou (wild caribou Rangifer tarandus granti and domestic reindeer Rangifer tarandus tarandus) and sealskin. Yup’ik clothing tended to fit relatively loosely. (Full article...)

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Alim Khan wearing ceremonial robes in an early color photograph by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky shot in 1911. Lavish silk and embroidery is symbolic of rank in many cultures.

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Textile Arts WikiProject

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WikiProject Fashion  • WikiProject Knots  • WikiProject Sculpture  • WikiProject Visual arts

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