Clothes: Introduction, Types, Synthetic, Summer And Winter

If you are curious to know why all people wear clothes. What are the different types of materials used to manufacture clothes? Then you have come to the right place. In this article, we will uncover interesting facts about different clothes. We will also learn why people wear woolen clothes in winter and cotton clothes in summer.

Introduction:

People all over the world wear clothes. Every day people wear different varieties of clothes throughout the year. But can you imagine when was the first time humans started to wear clothes? The answer is that the history of clothes goes back to the humans of the stone age. When humans started developing sharp weapons made up of stone, they started hunting animals for feeding their tribes and they used the skin of the dead animals for covering their bodies during rains and winters to protect their bodies from the cold. Ever since then, humans have been improvising the things to wear and over centuries of continuous improvisation today, we see clothes as they are. Nowadays clothes are more than just pieces of fabric to cover the body, clothes also represent a person’s identity as an individual as well as part of a community or a locality or his/her country in some cases. Let us dive further into the other interesting facts about clothes.

Types of fiber:

There are mainly two types of fibers namely,

1. Natural Fiber and 2) Synthetic Fiber

Natural Fibers:

Natural fibers are obtained naturally from plants(Cotton), and from animals (fur, wool, and silk). But natural fibers are difficult to obtain, costly, and limited in quantity.

Examples of Natural fibers are

i) Cotton: Cotton fabric is made from cotton that is obtained from cotton plants. The cotton balls obtained from the plants are first processed to create yarn and then this yarn is used to create the cotton fabric. Cotton is a very soft and fluffy material but at the same time, it’s durable. Cotton is used to make T-shirts, shirts, trousers undergarments, etc.

ii) Silk: Silk is the most popular fabric throughout the world. Also, silk is one of the costliest fabrics. Silk is obtained from silkworms. Silkworms secrete this sticky substance to create nests and cocoons. Silk is primarily made up of a protein called fibroin. Because of fibroin, the silk is very soft and shiny.

iii) Linen: After silk, linen is the most popular fabric. Linen is obtained from the flax plant. Linen fabric is very lightweight and strong.

iv) Wool: wool is obtained from the hair of animals such as sheep, goats, llamas, etc. Wool is also of different varieties which include, cashmere, angora, mohair, etc. Wool is very warm and durable. It is water resistant because of lanolin oils from the animals. Generally, wool is used to make sweaters and outerwear or inner of jackets.

Synthetic fibers:

Synthetic fibers are created by using synthetic material through chemical processing. The fibers are generally extracted at the time of the chemical process using a spinneret. The textile industry began producing synthetic fiber as an alternative to natural fiber because it’s cheaper and could be produced in huge quantities. The other advantages of synthetic fabrics are

• They are easy to wash and they dry quickly
• They can be made waterproof.
• They can be stretchy which is needed for swimsuits etc.

A few popular examples of Synthetic Fiber are

i) Polyester: This fabric is most commonly used for varieties of clothes. Polyester is obtained by combining polyethylene and terephthalate. It is very strong, soft, and durable. It dries quickly and doesn’t create wrinkles in the clothes. Polyester can blend well with other fabrics such as cotton, wool, and other synthetic fabric to create more durable fabrics.

ii) Nylon: This fabric is obtained from polyamide. It offers exceptionally good strength and elasticity. And it’s lightweight too also it drapes well. Dirt doesn’t cling to this fabric. It is easy to wash and quick to dry.

iii) PVC: Poly Vinyl Chloride is a waterproof, rubbery textured fabric that usually consists of a backing woven from polyester fabric with its surface covered by plastic. The plastic material is made up of Polyurethane (PU) and PVC. This fabric is generally used for stitching raincoats jackets and protective coverings. PVC Fabric blended with PU is extensively used in making School bags, luggage bags, office bags, etc.

iv) Ryon: Rayon also known as Viscose, is made from regenerated cellulose. It has got resembling properties of Silk. It gives a lustrous appearance and drapes well. It is highly absorbent and doesn’t give static or piling problems. This fabric is widely used in making sarees, blouses, shirts, Shawls, etc. One must take care while washing this fabric. It needs to be treated only using dry cleaning. If it is washed in with water and detergent, it will shrink in size, loses its shiny look, and it becomes harsh and stiff to wear.

Summer Clothing:

Sumer is the time of the year when the earth receives the highest amount of solar irradiation. And due to the greenhouse effect, the sun’s energy gets trapped inside the earth’s atmosphere causing all our surroundings to get heated up. Because of this heat, all of us feel sweaty and uncomfortable. Now to get some comfort for our bodies we need to wear clothes which will help our bodies to cool down easily and quickly. There is a particular type of fabric that is preferred by people to wear during summer. And these are cotton-based clothes. Cotton fabric has got small pores in between them because of which the air circulation and ventilation surrounding the body is much better than any other type of fabric. And also cotton absorbs sweat quickly and dries quickly too. So if you look around you, you will find people wearing loose cotton clothes such as kurtas, T-shirts, Shorts, Hats, etc.

Fig. Summer clothing

Winter Clothing:

Winter is the time of the year when the earth receives the lowest irradiance from the sun. Because of this the earth’s surface becomes colder and the air gets drier. When we go out in the winter our skin becomes dry and we see cracks and abrasions on the skin. Also, our bodies are exposed to low temperatures we start to shiver. Shivering causes our muscles to contract and relax frequently, which warms up our bodies. But it is not sufficient to warm our bodies and we want to keep our bodies warm to avoid cold bites. Therefore when we look around we find that most people will be covering their bodies with a particular type of clothes that are made from wool or fur.

Wool is a very bad conductor of heat. It does not carry heat easily and acts as an insulator. Hence wool is the fabric mostly used to make clothes for winter wear. We usually see sweaters, long coats, and jackets made from wool. The structure of the wool fiber causes thousands of tiny air pockets to form in wool fabric. In cold weather these trap body heat like a thick blanket does. The figure below it is illustrated different outfits for winter.

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