Behind the seams: Unravelling the technical process of clothing production

The background article From fibre to garment: the technical 'make-up' of your clothing explores the process of transforming fibres and yarns into fabrics and eventually into finished garments. It gives an in-depth overview of how the garments sold in fashion stores are created, unravelling the fabric they are made of to arrive at yarns or fibres and eventually the raw materials that comprise them.

Fabric used for a garment can be made from yarn or fibre. Woven and knitted fabrics are made using yarn, while non-woven fabric is made from fibre. Just as there are different types of yarns (fibre yarns and filament yarns), there are various types of fibres such as animal fibres, plant fibres and artificial fibres. But what are artificial natural fibres?

In addition to questions like these, the background article examines the different ways in which final garments are ‘treated’ after they have been constructed, also known as pre- and post- finishing processes, how a stiffer fabric can be made more elastic, and it explains many more technical processes and handy terminology.

This article has been partially generated with an AI tool, and then edited by Veerle Versteeg.