Factsheet 1: a brief history of the fashion industry

As early as 3000 BC, cotton was grown and used in the Indus Valley of India. Ancient Egypt and China also spun and wove it. In the Middle Ages, traders brought cotton from India to Spain. The fibre was then called qutun, an Arabic word which became cotton. 

Cotton was growing in the Americas when Europeans reached them...

 

Back to Set 1: industry background