Worldwide Textile Industry

The textile industry mainly involves clothing design and manufacture, but it also entails the the use and distribution of textiles. Even though textile industry has existed in one form or another for centuries, it was the Industrial Revolution that gave it a considerable push, especially when it came to the processing of cotton, the single most important natural fiber in the world. Cotton spinning was vastly improved thanks to several machines patented during that era, such as Richard Arkwright's water frame, James Hargreaves's Spinning Jenny and Samuel Crompton's Spinning Mule. Further developments included a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft.

Clothing would not be possible without the textile industry, and thus textiles have been a large part of human history, since clothing is an exclusively human characteristic featured in most societies. Other than fashion, clothing has many functions, which include keeping the body warm and comfortable, protecting from the rain, the sun and the wind, and insulation. Clothing can be adapted for different locations and climates, with superficial layers such as coats, hats, gloves, and socks. The versatility and inventiveness of the textile industry can be appreciate in the fact that there are different types of clothing for different occasions, like sports activities, business meetings and so on and so forth, or purely for aesthetic purposes.

However, clothing is not the only use for the textile industry. Surgical textile products are use in the operation room. For example, sterile drapes used to cover the patients body, surgical gowns used by surgeons and hospital gowns worn by patients; as well as towels used in the OR, laparotomy sponges, gauze sponges and bandages. These textile products must be manufactured in such a way that they not only allow freedom of movement, but also comply with hospitals' high standards of hygiene and sterility.