Description

Kassia St Clair tells world history through thread, cloth, and clothes. She starts with fibres that are 30,000 years old. She goes on to new fibres made in labs. This history is for readers drawn to cloth and its role in life.

The book looks at linen in ancient Egypt. It also covers the Silk Roads and the Greek Fates. The Fates are Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, daughters of Zeus. They spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. The book also features empresses from China. Richard the Lionheart and Bing Crosby appear too.

St Clair links cloth to changes in taste, work, and power. She looks at lace collars that made Puritans angry. She traces how denim spread across the world. She shows the role cretonne cloth played in the Industrial Revolution. She tells of enslaved people who fled plantations. She covers the Moon landing and climbs on Everest. Masked balls in the 18th century also form part of this history.

St Clair studied women's dress at Bristol and Oxford. Her work included clothes for masked balls in the 18th century. She has written about design culture for The Economist and Telegraph. She has written on this for Times Literary Supplement too. She also wrote Culorile si viata lor secreta. This edition is part of the Savoir-vivre series.