On Sun, Mar 10, 2019, 12:12 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk, <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
> | From: Don Tai via talk <talk@gtalug.org> > | > | A different view from the fashion industry. Instead of making more throw > | away products, make less but better quality products. It seems very old > | school, and much less wasteful. Not quite the right to repair, but along > | the same philosophical line. > | > | > https://www.fastcompany.com/90311509/we-have-to-fix-fashion-if-we-want-to-survive-the-next-century > > Interesting. I think that some of this is exagerated but I'm on-side. > > Just like electronics got radically cheaper (orders of magnitude) in > my lifetime, the cost of clothing has gotten radically cheaper in the > last three centuries. > > I just read: > <https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/MedCloth04chapfourC.pdf> > > The cost of a woollen broadcloth (about 27 meters long) in this period > (say 1500) was about the same as a master mason's annual wage. > > The processes of building garments was complex and labour-intensive. > There are many steps that most people don't know. Ever heard of > carding? Fulling? Mordants? > > Clothes were inherited. > > Worn-out linen was prized for making paper. There was an occupation > "rag picker". You can see paintings of rag pickers in the current > exhibition at the AGO "Impressionism in the Age of Industry: Monet, > Pissarro and more". > Up until 2005 or so, until a fire, Toronto had a permanent rag trader on Queen St. near Niagara. He would buy, sort and sell rags. This was a go to location for painters and wood workers where you could get a big bag of lower quality cleaning rags for a couple of dollars. If you were into fancy wood finishes ie. french polishing with linseed oil and turpentine, he would sell you a few linen or cotton rags but he kept the bulk of those for artisan paper makers and he apparently shipped those world wide. > > Prices started to go down (I think) with the introduction of machines > like the carding machines, spinning jenny, power looms, cotton gin, > etc. Here's a timeline that I found after typing that: > > < > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_clothing_and_textiles_technology > > > > This automation eliminated the "need" for slaves in cotton production. > If I remember correctly, picking the cotton and separating the staple > from the seeds was very labour-intensive. > --- > Talk Mailing List > talk@gtalug.org > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >
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