Dirty Linen?

Volume 1 - Issue 5

Ashok Athalye*

Received: April 05,2018;   Published: April 10, 2018

DOI: 10.32474/LTTFD.2018.01.000124

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Abstract

Linen used to be the most widely used textile material for apparel clothing for ages during the primordial era. Additionally, owing to its strength, durability and long lasting property, the ancient Egyptians were considered to use it even as a currency. Thus, Linen was an intrinsic and intimate component of human life and it was valued so much that cleaning of household cloths in public place probably led to the popular colloquial term of washing dirty Linen (personal matters that could be embarrassing if made public). Linen which ruled the northern hemisphere garb for thousands of years lost its importance in the last few centuries as another natural fiber “Cotton” also initially marketed as white gold gained prominence during British colonization in Asia and the advent of industrialization. Availability of vast land mass for cultivation of cotton in Indian subcontinent, claimant tropical weather conditions, cheap labor, ease of downstream processing, etc boosted popularity of cotton and it became the most popular textile substrate around the globe within a short time. Linen, which enjoyed a lion’s share among the natural farm-cultivated textile substrates until the 17th century, lost its mare and reduced to hardly 1 % of total textile fiber consumption by mid 19th century. However, last few decades have witnessed revival of Linen and usage of this long and thick fiber in apparel and home furnishing segment.

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