Textile History

Bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama—where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form.

The story of humanity is the story of textiles - as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world.

Brimming with rich, electrifying tales of the precious dye and its ancient heritage, Indigo is also the story of a personal quest: Catherine McKinley is the descendant of a clan of Scots who wore indigo tartan; Jewish "rag traders"; a Massachusetts textile factory owner; and African slaves - her ancestors were traded along the same Saharan routes as indigo, where a length of blue cotton could purchase human life.

Voici le livre de Loïc Prigent que tout le monde attendait : son histoire de la mode. Dans ce récit savant, personnel et aussi irrésistible que l'achat d'un vêtement superflu et donc indispensable, il dévoile la couture, du XIXe siècle à l'ouverture de la première boutique de Gabrielle Chanel en 1913. Des premiers grands couturiers (Worth) et des premières acheteuses stars (l'impératrice Eugénie) à l'industrie qui s'en mêle et aux débuts de la commercialisation de masse, nous découvrons les dessus et les dessous de cette folie française.

Organized by region, with one chapter devoted to Paris, Made in France takes you on a complete tour of the dazzling, artisanal legacy of France, uncovering off-the-beaten-path destinations and one-of-a-kind, hidden workshops, where everything from lingerie to chocolate is turned out completely by hand, piece by piece.