Very nicely written ! what a fab quote.. tree wool
"there are trees which grow wild there, the fruit whereof is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep. The natives make their clothes of this tree-wool").
Toga parties.. we used to wear a sheet to a party and get drunk, you can imagine what happened next (they all start falling off )
Yeah - I guess if you hadn't seen cotton before, it looked like a very mysterious thing!
following the historian ! ;)
yes. Cotton is one of the backbones of civilisation. I saw a tree recently here in London which had just flowered and left masses of what looked just like cotton on the ground.. I examined it closely and thought, this would make a lovely natural fibre.. I don't know what the tree was.. it certainly wasn't cotton (not warm enough in the UK) but i wasn't aware of any other cotton like materials which are cultivated.. perhaps you know of other TREE WOOLS
I think flax produces linen - but it's not a tree, more like a grass. And then you get really rough sack-cloth made from sisal fibres, it's good for sacks and ropes, but you wouldn't want to wear it. Cotton really is the best because you get such a high yield per acre.
And then there are the animal-based fibres - silk, goats hair, cashmere (which I think is a mountain goat), and of course wool. And don't forget leather made from animal hides. I think the first clothing would have been hides and fur stitched together and only later did they start weaving cloth using wool and cotton.
yeah my mum had flax plants..and sisal is ok for making sacks. hemp is great but more like linen. theres also coir for mats and of course the animal fibres.. apparently dog hair makes wonderful wool for pullovers and I have a friend who is a textiles expert.. (actually I have a few) !! and she said she'd heard of someone making a very nice top from milk protein ?
https://www.linenme.com
(here's an explanation of wools from linenme.com
Sheep’s Wool.
It is traditional wool that can be made from any sheep fleece.
Merino Wool.
Merino wool is taken from a Merino Sheep and has fine, soft appearance of the fabric. It is quite expensive. The distinction from other types of wool is its resistance to pilling.
Mohair Wool.
Mohair is taken from Angora goat. It is not very soft and many people find it a very itchy fabric to wear directly next to the skin.
Angora Wool.
Angora wool is made of an Angora rabbit hair. Its main quality is its fluffy surface texture and its soft touch. It is expensive, as it comes from a specific breed of rabbit. To improve fabric stability Angora is often blended with Nylon.
Cashmere Wool.
Cashmere is soft and luxurious fabric. The fibers that are used to make cashmere come from specific areas of the fleece of a cashmere goat, and that is why it is so expensive.
Alpaca Wool
made from the hair of Peruvian alpacas, but it also also can come from similar fibers of mohair, Icelandic sheep or even high-quality English wool. Alpaca fleece is a lustrous, silky, soft and therefore luxurious natural fiber. It is warmer than usual wool, not prickly, and bears no lanolin, and therefore – hypoallergenic.
I wonder how that works - it conjures up a top made of string cheese!
I can't imagine.. but I bet it makes a slinky fabric. you can probably make fabric out of many things if you could be bothered. I find it amazing there was no industry for clothes making in Ancient Greece, even though they imported ready made cotton from India. really, did nobody produce off the peg clothes in Ancient Athens ??? come on
It was all made at home, by the women and the slaves. That was their job.