The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History Hardcover – November 12, 2019

Was not expecting this to be so well written and well thought out. Ms. St. Clair has a brisk and captivating writing style . Her historical research is astounding. A most excellent read for anyone regardless of your care for textiles.

I loved this book, it started out a bit slowly but took off in directions that were so interesting and intriguing and fascinating. I can’t believe we understand so little about something that everyone of us depends on daily.

Hearing St. Clair describing her book on public radio, caught my attention, and led me to look into this text. My mother ran/owned a fabric store for many years where she and my sister were involved with many aspects of sewing personally and as part of the business. Given my family involvement, I was fascinated to see this history and context for textile origins, its progression, and perspective on its influence in our lives.After an Introduction, the author proceeds through almost self-contained thirteen chapters that ‘cover’ her subject and ‘weave the story.’ More specifically, she deals with: (1) Fibers in the Cave: The Origins of Weaving, (2) Dead Men’s Shroud: Wrapping and Unwrapping Mummies, (3) Gifts and Horses: Silk in Ancient China, (4) Cities that Silk Built: The Silk Roads, (5) Surf Dragons: The Vikings Woolen Sails, (6) A King’s Ransom: Wool in Medieval England, (7) Diamonds and the Ruff: Lace and Luxury, (8) Solomon’s Coats: Cotton, America and Trade, (9) Layering in Extremis: Clothing to Conquer Everest and the South Pole, (10) Workers in the Factory: Rayon’s Dark Past, (11) Under Pressure: Suites Suitable for Space, (12) Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Record Breaking Sports Fabrics, (13) The Golder Cape: Harnessing Spider Silk. There is also a concluding chapter ‘Golden Threads: A Coda’ as well as helpful Acknowledgements, Glossary, Notes, Bibliography, and Index sections.My favorite parts include those when St. Clair uses poetic and literary allusions and descriptors starting early on in the book. For instance, in the Introduction she offers the explanation of the 3 fates of Greek mythology that create a person’s life thread with a beginning, middle and end (each a story line) affected by forces and woven into the culture. I was also particularly interested in the evolution of weaving from a household activity to business and industry (see Robertson’s Essays in Medieval Culture (Princeton Legacy Library) and Khanna’s The Future Is Asian for more on the silk road). Then, there is the development of synthetic textiles leading eventually to global sourcing (see Khanna’s Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization). The prominence of women in this movement both empowering and exploitative comes through the narrative (see also Paglia’s Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism). The observation that we have reached the point of having disposable clothing and the need for environmental consumers to turn the tide against that trend was revelatory. Having been a swimmer and had aerospace business familiarity, it was fun to read the author’s accounts regarding those and other high-performance fabric applications.From a personal stance, I would have liked more on the fabric business and individual sewing which has now become more of an art form in the developed countries. Some charts about the economics and additional illustrations would have been useful as well. Textbooks like “Going Global: The Textile and Apparel Industry” by Kunz et al may be useful sources in that regard (see also my review of Pulizzi's "Content Inc." re the Missouri Star Quilt Company). But obviously these books do not have the charm and artistic quality of St. Clairs’ presentation.For those with such interests and tastes, this book is clearly worth your attention.

The better title might be “How History Has Changed Fabric.” Traditional fabrics have familiar stories: linen wrapped mummies in Egypt, rich brocades of the Silk Road, wool sails of Vikings ships, and cotton on America’s slave plantations. This is a history of economic survival, social status, art, religious practices, and war & peace. Since the 1960s polyester evolved from cruddy, stinky, and creepy to comfortable, practical, and very cheap. More than half of today’s textiles are made China (then India and Bangladesh) with their vast labor resources and lax environmental standards. “We live surrounded by cloth.”The role of women is prominent. Throughout history women spent much of their lives spinning, weaving, and sewing in their homes, where they could also tend to children. Ginning, carding, spinning, and plying are some complex steps in producing durable twisted threads from crop land (flax, cotton) and grazing land (silkworms, sheep.) Women typically have more manual dexterity for weaving patterns that can be plain, basket, brocade, satin, twill, etc. (Thankfully, there is a glossary!) Increased demand moved textile production from households to workshops to factories where women were (are) still the lowest paid workers. Today more than 80% of working women in Bangladesh work in textiles.• The oldest recovered fiber fragments are flax dated to 34,000 years old in the Republic of Georgia.• One pound of silk requires 220 pounds of mulberry leaves. One silk thread can be 1,100 yards long.• Fifty species of cotton grow naturally on four continents in a band between 32° South and 37° North.• The staple length of sheep wool is 2 to 5 inches. One sheep produces 2 pounds of wool.• Louis XIV’s fashion style provoked the Lace Wars of the 1600s between France and Flanders.• Fabrics were traded worldwide: Indian Calicos, African Guinea cloth, English wool,• Enslaved field hands on plantations largely wore white cotton homespun.• Today cotton makes up 25% of all fibers used globally.• Linen fibers have 2 times the strength of cotton and 4 times the strength of wool.• Lace requires mathematical acumen. Complicated patterns can require 600 different bobbins.More than 50% of fabrics today are synthetic. Rayon (ray of light) is a semi-synthetic from wood pulp first made in 1905. Soft and silk-like, it is blended with cotton for viscose and modal. Highly acidic chemicals break down the cellulose fibers during production. Carbon disulfide is a light fluffy dust byproduct very damaging to the health of production workers. Currently rayon production requires 120 million trees a year. Petrochemicals evolved in the 1930s and DuPont developed nylon—and nylon stockings. The world of high fashion resisted synthetics but today disposable clothing is pervasive.Technology has changed the way every game is played, mostly invisible to spectators. Nike’s hijab for runners is light stretchy, breathable, and synthetic. Polyurethane swimsuits that minimize friction are credited with 147 records in 2009. Wet fabrics freeze at the South Pole and on Everest: perspiration is a huge challenge. Natural fibers next to the skin feel better. The fuzziness of a tennis ball helps determine its speed. The 21-layer spacesuit is a story by itself!From a silk cocoon in a teacup to Rumpelstiltskin to Robin Hood’s coat of Lincoln Green, no account of fabrics is complete without Levi Strauss. Do you feel different when you wear your jeans?

Great book!

The author must have had me in mind when she wrote this book. The subject matter is mind boggling when one takes time to consider how fibers impacted civilization. Her style of writing was perfect for me: short chapters, easily grasped concepts.

Even as someone who works with fabric and yarn and thread, I found this a difficult read with no photos.For a very visual subject matter, this is a terrible oversight.

I am fairly well informed about textiles and their history, but not an expert. I saw this book recommended and thought it might make a good gift for a similarly interested friend, but I wanted to read it first in case it was too simplistic, romanticized, or just wrong. Fortunately, the style of the narrative, while aimed at a general reader with little prior knowledge, is engaging and thoughtful. Rather than a general history, It consists of a series of essays rooted in events, techniques, or practices in textiles, but uses them as a window into culture and human history, seen through an unconventional lens. Each essay stands alone, with a diverse range of topics addressed in a thoughtful and engrossing manner. I did give it to my friend, and bought another copy for someone else.