Short history of the textile/ fashion industry until nowadays business models

Textile industry exists from prehistoric times. Its evolution is largely linked to technological progress and distribution roads, the most famous one being the silk road, which was the main trade road for textile products from the Roman Empire until the XVth century.

In prehistoric times, people used animal hairs or plants to make fibers. Silk, which is the only natural fiber formed of filaments that can be joined together and transformed into yarn by twisting, was introduced to China around 2600 Before Christ. The other natural fibers must be stretched and aligned parallel by combing, then transformed into a continuous yarn by spinning. The spinning wheel was mechanized in Europe around 1400, for the first important growth of the industry in Europe. Further mechanical improvements were introduced along the centuries until the textile reached the industrial revolution in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The mechanization of weaving began in 1733 with John Kay’s flying shuttle, then the first steam loom created by Edmund Cartwright in 1788 accelerated the process. In France, Barthélemy Thimonnier invented the first sewing machine in 1830. In parallel, the first synthetic fibers, made from cellulose or petrochemicals were developed in the middle of the 18th century and are increasingly used alone or mixed.

The technical progress made during the XVIII-XIX centuries not only kick-started the modern textile industry but is at the origin of the industrial revolution and economic development, as well as profound family and social changes in industrialised countries. First in the UK, then in Belgium, France, Germany and US, the industrial revolution will push most societies from agriculture and crafts towards industry and trade.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)#/media/File:Chaplin_-_Modern_Times.jpg

The fast industrialization of Asian countries from the 1960s and 1970s soon shatters the North-South dichotomy. Over a few decades, the geographical distribution of the production in the textile, clothing, and footwear industries has changed profoundly. While employment in this industry decreases strongly in Europe or North America, the production is delocalized in Asia and other parts of the developing world. If the industrial society was already criticized in northern countries for the modern conception of work that it developed, based on mechanical and repetitive tasks and low wages in factories,  this shift of production to Asia has generally had even more negative consequences on wages and working conditions.

After the decline of the silk road, new distribution channels emerged for textile and fashion products, especially in the XX century, while old overland connections were blocked from the First World War and the cold war. Maritime transport of products started to develop thanks to the Suez Canal, which is nowadays one of the major routes of trade between Europe and Asia. In March 2021, the Suez Canal crisis, with the Ever Given ship blocking the maritime traffic during 6 days, with consequences on products supply all over the world, evidenced the importance of this trade route.

Source: The two ways for the ‘One Bell-One Route’ project [yourfreetemplates] ARTICLE / Jimena Puga Gómez [Spanish version]

The abundance of cheap Chinese labor, together with the lack of regulatory compliance, low taxes and duties, and competitive currency practices have converted China into the world’s biggest manufacturer.

Nowadays, the revitalization of the ancient Silk Road has become one of the biggest challenges for the Chinese and world economy, which englobes a revolution in the infrastructures of transport of goods, energies, technologies, and people. In particular, for China, this One-Belt-One Road is supposed to reinforce their trade supremacy over the rest of the countries.

Behind China, which exported for a value of approximately 154 billion US dollars in 2020, India is now the world’s second-largest exporter of textiles and clothing, with a value of 44,4 billion US dollars in 2022, and offering employment to over 35 million people in the country.