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A thread through time

Global Trade

Where does your shirt come from, and who decides?

From British mercantilism to the Multi-Fibre Arrangement and today's offshore supply chains, the industry has always been a contest over who makes the world's cloth.

21 stories across 11 chapters

  1. Before 1600 · Before the Loom

    Innovation

    The Diné Loom

    How the Diné made the Pueblo upright loom and Spanish sheep into one of the world's great weaving traditions.

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    A Diné (Navajo) woman weaving a blanket on an upright loom, a bold stepped design taking shape at the base of the warp.
    George Wharton James, "Navajo woman at her loom weaving a blanket," c. 1900. California Historical Society Collection, USC Digital Library (CHS-4728). Public domain.
  2. Material Culture

    Bark, Nettle, Feather, and Shell

    Eastern Woodlands finger-weaving, the lace of Spiro, and why wampum is not cloth money.

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    Craig Mound at the Spiro Mounds site in eastern Oklahoma, whose sealed burial chamber preserved the richest prehistoric textile collection in the Southeast before commercial diggers looted it in the 1930s.
    Herb Roe, "Spiro Craig Mound" (2011). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  3. Tragedy

    The Long Walk and the Trading Post

    1863 to the 1930s: how conquest, confinement, and federal policy reshaped Diné weaving.

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    Diné (Navajo) captives under armed guard at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, during the internment at Bosque Redondo that followed the Long Walk.
    U.S. Army Signal Corps, "Navajo Indian captives under guard, Fort Sumner, New Mexico," c. 1864-1868. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA 028534); U.S. National Archives (NAID 148727588). Public domain.

  4. 1600–1760 · The Colonial Hearth

    Impact

    Sheep, Statutes, and Survival

    How colonial law conscripted the household into a textile economy.

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    Spinning in the colonial American kitchen, where nearly all household cloth began.
    Engraving from Joel Dorman Steele and Esther Baker Steele, "A Brief History of the United States" (1885). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

  5. 1760–1789 · The Revolutionary Loom

    Biography

    The Hartford Broadcloth

    George Washington's inauguration suit as policy statement.

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    George Washington takes the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall, April 30, 1789, wearing brown broadcloth woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory.
    Amos Doolittle, "Federal Hall, N.Y. 1789-First Capitol of the United States," hand-colored engraving, 1790. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (ppmsca.15703). Public domain.

  6. 1790–1810 · The Industrial Spy

    Biography

    Slater the Memoryman

    How an apprentice carried an empire's secret across an ocean in his head—and what he needed help to rebuild.

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    Samuel Slater (1768-1835), who memorized Arkwright's spinning system and rebuilt it in Pawtucket.
    Engraved portrait of Samuel Slater from "The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Rhode Island" (Providence: National Biographical Publishing Co., 1881). Internet Archive, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  7. Biography

    Moses Brown: The Quaker Capitalist

    The abolitionist financier whose family fortune was tangled with slavery.

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    Moses Brown (1738-1836), the Quaker merchant who financed Slater's first mill.
    Martin Johnson Heade, "Moses Brown," oil on canvas, 1857 (posthumous). Brown University Portrait Collection. Public domain.

  8. 1793–1850 · The Cotton Kingdom

    Tragedy

    The Second Middle Passage

    The forced migration that built the Cotton Kingdom.

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    A coffle of enslaved people marched past the U.S. Capitol-the domestic slave trade that forcibly moved about a million people into the Cotton Kingdom.
    "A slave-coffle passing the Capitol," wood engraving, 1876. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LCCN 98510280). Public domain.
  9. Tragedy

    The Hands That Picked

    The enslaved people who grew the cotton, as named individuals and as the largest financial asset in the American economy.

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    Enslaved men, women, and children picking cotton and carrying it in baskets on a Georgia plantation.
    "Picking cotton on a Georgia plantation," wood engraving, 1858. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LCCN 2002698525). Public domain.

  10. 1920–1930 · The Electric Loom

    Impact

    The Great Piedmont Migration

    How electricity and cheap labor moved an industry south.

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    Workers leaving the Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina, at closing time.
    Lewis Wickes Hine, "Closing hour Loray Mill, Gastonia, N.C. November 7, 1908." Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection (nclc.01352). Public domain.

  11. 1950–1980 · The Polyester Dream

    Material Culture

    The Leisure Suit Phenomenon

    How polyester became the most-mocked fabric in American fashion.

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    A man in a leisure suit in a Chicago parking lot, 1978.
    Downtowngal, "Man in leisure suit in parking lot, Chicago" (November 7, 1978). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

  12. 1980–2000 · The Branded Empire

    Material Culture

    Calvin Klein and the Birth of Designer Denim

    How a Bronx-born designer made workwear a status symbol.

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    An American indoor shopping mall in the 1980s-the retail stage on which apparel brands built national empires.
    Carol M. Highsmith, "Indoor shopping mall," between 1980 and 1990. Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LCCN 2011635987). Public domain.
  13. Biography

    Air Jordan and the Sneaker Economy

    How a basketball shoe became a foundation of modern brand culture.

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    A 2020 retro release of the Air Jordan 1 in its 1985 black-and-red "Banned" colorway.
    HI 622, "Air Jordan 1 Banned" (2021). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  14. Impact

    Hip-Hop and the Logo

    How a culture that brands did not market to redefined their reach.

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    Run-DMC's Adidas sneakers on display at the Bata Shoe Museum. The group's 1986 deal with Adidas was the first endorsement contract between a hip-hop act and an athletic brand.
    rrafson, "Run DMC Adidas," Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto (2013). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

  15. 1980–2005 · The Great De-Industrialization

    Impact

    The Kannapolis Collapse

    When the world's best-known towel company closed in a single day.

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    Cannon Mills at Kannapolis, North Carolina, once the world's largest towel producer. Its successor Pillowtex closed the plant on July 30, 2003.
    Tichnor Bros. for Dixie News Company, "Cannon Mills, Kannapolis, N.C.," postcard, c. 1930-1945. Boston Public Library, Tichnor Brothers Collection. Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
  16. Impact

    The End of the Quotas

    The night the quotas died.

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    A container ship at the Port of Los Angeles. After Multi-Fibre Arrangement quotas expired on January 1, 2005, apparel imports surged.
    Downtowngal, "Container ship NYK Themis at the Port of Los Angeles" (2021). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

  17. 2010–2020 · The Reshoring Frontier

    Innovation

    The Automated Factory

    Robotics, digital knitting, and the limits of the 'factory of the future.'

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    A computerized flat-bed knitting machine. Automated knitting of this kind underpins the small, highly automated mills of the reshoring era.
    Elkágyé, "Contemporary flat knitting machine" (2018). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  18. Biography

    The Direct-to-Consumer Revolution

    How the internet opened a niche for small American-made apparel brands.

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    A computerized flat-bed knitting machine. Automated knitting of this kind underpins the small, highly automated mills of the reshoring era.
    Elkágyé, "Contemporary flat knitting machine" (2018). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  19. Impact

    The PPE Pivot of 2020

    What was left of the U.S. textile base, in a crisis.

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    The N95 respirator production line Honeywell set up in Phoenix, Arizona, in spring 2020.
    Shealah Craighead, Official White House Photo, Honeywell International Inc. mask production line, Phoenix, Arizona, May 5, 2020. Public domain (U.S. government work).

  20. 2020–Present · The Circular Reckoning

    Tragedy

    The Shein Reckoning

    Inside the platform that adds thousands of new styles a day.

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    A textile-recycling bin beside ordinary waste containers. Most discarded clothing worldwide is still landfilled or incinerated.
    Daniel Capilla, "Textile Recycling Container and Waste Containers," Málaga, Spain (2022). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  21. Tragedy

    Rana Plaza

    The 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh that exposed the hidden supply chains of American brands.

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    Rescue workers search the wreckage of Rana Plaza in Savar, Bangladesh, three days after the eight-story garment-factory building collapsed on April 24, 2013.
    Sharat Chowdhury, "2013 Savar building collapse," April 27, 2013. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5.

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