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National Textiles Day 2025
Today is National Textiles Day during which we celebrate the pervasive influence of fabrics in our lives. In fact, 33 years ago yesterday, a certain white 👰🏻💞 dress became part of the rest of my life.
Bioweave
I started to grow microbial cellulose to explore an ecofriendly textile for clothing and accessories but, very quickly, I realized this method had potential for all sorts of other biodegradable consumer products. ~Suzanne Lee
That’s cool for keeping landfills from filling up prematurely, but if all of our textiles are aggressively biodegradable, how are future archaeologists supposed to figure out what we wore?
In any case, textiles have been with us for thousands of years. From the first woven fabrics or spun animal hair garments, we’ve had a love affair with fabrics.
They can be used for clothing, blankets, homes, even armor.
Pish posh, you say? How rude.
In medieval times, men wore thickly quilted garments known as gambisons that were poke and cut resistant.
Likewise, horsemen of the Mongolian horde wore silk shirts under their all-weather gear to aid in the removal of arrows that had made it through the outer layers.
Textiles have also been about expressing a culture, an attitude or a personal identity.
From Hawaiian shirts to Highland kilts, textiles have brought joy and community to our lives in a very intimate way.
Wearing branded or fan apparel can identify like-minded people from every corner of the globe.
It can say, “I like _____, come talk to me about it.” without your having to say a word.
They can be soft and comfy or stiff and scratchy. Naturally, I prefer the former.
Future Fabrics
Top 5 AI Trends in the Textile Industry 2025!
Back when I was a kid and the Jetsons came on, I was very excited for a future where everyone wore pajamas and communicated by TV screens.
Booyah! The future is now. We may not have gotten the flying cars, but the age of comfortable clothing and working without a lot of supervision is definitely here.
Won’t be long before we have robots like Rosie helping us around the house. I sure hope mine has a Brooklyn accent and a vast library of good recipes preloaded.
I’m not really holding out hope for flying cars. I know there are some personal flying vehicle models commercially available even now, but I don’t think we’re going to see the kind the Jetsons or Marty McFly rode around in any time soon.
Center For Research
North Carolina enjoys a worldwide reputation as a center for textile research and workers. Our excellent business climate and location offer international firms an ideal place to reach and serve customers in the United States. ~Roy Cooper
It’s refreshing to see politicians who seem to have a positive interest in the wellbeing of their constituents.
I’ve started dripping a few political characters into The Sentinels: New Blood because book 2 of the series will focus on another of the classic Golden Age of Comic Books antagonists: crooked politicians and industrialists.
My characters seem to be, at first glance, typical of their tropes. I turn it around and give them human depth, because very few people are caricatures in real life.
I’m trying to make believable characters who have some human depth to them. They may not always be nice, but they are (I hope) reasonably organic and perhaps a little nuanced.
Even Chuck the Schmuck has gotten a bit of depth in his few appearances and second-hand mentions.
That’s how stories achieve texture. Weaving disparate characters like a radical plaid makes for interesting fiction. Even if the threads clash, you can still wind up with a wonderful tapestry in the end.
That’s all for today. See you back on Wednesday for something Roald Dahl may or may not approve of…