In spite of the commonplace nature of textiles, each different material boasts its own unique origins and histories in Asia, both of which date back centuries. Many of the countless forms of apparel these textiles are used to produce are beautiful reflections of Asia’s wondrous heritage and diverse cultures.
COTTON
HISTORY: Arguably the most ubiquitous and popular textile in the world, cotton was likely being used as a fabric in the 6th millennium BCE, as evidenced by several threads recovered from a copper bead found at a Neolithic burial site in Mehrgarh, southwestern Pakistan. Cotton was subsequently cultivated and woven into cloth during the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilisation, a discovery that was made when Daya Ram Sahni (1879–1939) of the Archaeological Survey of India found fragments of cotton “adher[ed] to the lid of a small silver vase”. Cotton has been domesticated, woven and traded across various regions of Asia over a wide range of eras, including China’s Ming dynasty from the 14th to 17th century and the reign of the Mughal Empire from the 16th to the 19th century.
Due to its durable, breathable nature and versatility, cotton is used to. This outfit can be found in regions of Central and South Asia such as Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, and consists of long, loose-fitting trousers () and a loose-fitting, knee-length tunic (), which may be paired with a long scarf or shawl called a which is worn draped over one’s neck or head. In addition to numerous articles of clothing, cotton is also used to make several different fabrics, such as muslin, a plain-woven and lightweight fabric. Muslin gets its name from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where it is thought to have been first manufactured, and was once a highly regarded and valuable material due to its remarkably delicate nature.
