NEET PG (NTA)-National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Post Graduate (Medical) NEET-PG Coaching Programs

🎯 36 Numeric, 2996 MCQs (& PYQs) with Full Explanations (2024-2025 Exam)

Click Here to View & Get Complete Material

Rs. 650.00

3 Year Validity (Multiple Devices)

Clothing Material: Clothing, Clothing History, Functions of Clothes

Clothing and Its History

  • The different types of materials worn on the body are collectively known as Clothing.
  • Clothing helps us to protect our bodies against rain, cold and other weather conditions.
  • The first clothes were made up from animal skin, fur, grass, leaves, bone, and shells.
  • The garments were often draped or tied.
  • The early men used to cover their bodies by wrapping tree leaves, woven grass or tree barks, bones, skull, etc.
  • According to History clothes changed along with the culture, fashion, and wealth.
  • It was in the Middle East where the clothes changed along with the culture, fashion, and wealth started.
  • It is also believed that wearing fabric clothes began from 100,000 to 500,000 years ago.

Evolution of Clothing

  • It is believed that the cotton was first cultivated in 3,000 BC.
  • Wool was being woven about 4,000 BC in Egypt.
  • In the year 1935, Nylon, an artificial fiber was invented replacing silk.
  • China was the first country to start with silk production.

Ready-Made Clothing

  • All the clothes were local and hand-sewn before the invention of sewing machines.
  • Individual items of clothing for customers were made by the tailors and seamstresses in most of the towns.
  • The ready-made clothing industry took off after the invention of the sewing machine.

Functions of Clothing

  • It ensures safety during the hazardous activities such as while working in boiler plants.
  • It protects us from various types of weather conditions such as extreme cold or heat.
  • Clothing performs a range of social and cultural functions.
  • In societies, norms about clothing reflect:
    • Standards of modesty
    • Religion
    • Gender
    • Social Status
  • It may also function as a form of adornment and an expression of personal taste or style.
  • Clothing also protects us from environmental hazards such as insects, noxious chemicals, weather, weapons, etc.

Knitting

  • It was first introduced as a fabric creation technique around 6500 BC.
  • It is a method using which yarn is manipulated to create a textile or fabric.
  • It creates stitches, loops of yarn in a row, either flat or in the round (tubular) .

Looms

  • There are two main types of loom, which dominate textile production namely warp-weighted loom and beam boom.
  • The length of the cloth beam determined the width of the cloth woven.
  • Early woven clothing was often made of full loom widths draped, tied, or pinned in place.

Textile Trade in the Ancient World

Illustration: Textile Trade in the Ancient World

Ancient Near East

  • The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East may be flax fabrics.
  • These flax fabrics used to wrap the dead, excavated at a Neolithic site.

Ancient Egypt

  • In the Neolithic period, evidence exists of linen cloth.
  • Other bast fibers including rush, reed, palm, and papyrus were used alone or with linen to make rope and other textiles.

Ancient China

  • The earliest evidence of silk production in China was found at the sites of Yangshao culture in Xia.
  • From the sites of Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang fragments of primitive loom are also seen.

Ancient Thailand

90 fragments of a spindle whorl dated from 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD have been discovered by the archaeologists.

Ancient Japan

  • Clothing became longer and wider in general and sewing methods were more advanced.
  • The pottery pattern imprints depict also fine mat designs, proving their weaving techniques.
  • Rice cultivation was developed during the Yayoi.
  • Due to high cost of the silks, it could be used only by certain classes or ranks.