Zara case study
Sewing up the Competition - Innovation in the
Textile and Clothing Industry
Manufacturing doesn’t get much older than the textile and clothing industry. Since the earliest days when we lived in caves there’s been a steady demand for something to wrap around us to keep warm and to protect the more sensitive bits of our anatomy from the worst of the elements. What began with animal hides and furs gradually moved into a more sophisticated activity with fabrics woven from flax or wool – and with people increasingly specializing in the business.
In its early days this was very much a cottage industry – quite literally people would spin wool gathered from sheep and weave simple cloths on home-made looms. But the skill base – and the technology – began to develop and many of the family names we still have today –Weaver, Dyer, Tailor, for example – remind us of the importance of this sector. And where there were sufficient cottages and groups of people with such skill we began to see concentrations of manufacturing – for example the Flemish weavers or the lace-makers in the English Midlands. As their reputation – and the quality of their goods – grew so the basis of trading internationally in textiles and clothing was established.
The small-scale nature of the industry changed dramatically during the Industrial
Revolution. Massive growth in population meant that markets were becoming much bigger while at the same time significant developments in technology (and the science underpinning the technology) meant that making textiles and clothing became an increasingly industrialized process. Much of the early Industrial Revolution was around the cotton and wool industries in England and many of the great innovations and machinery – such as the spinning jenny – were essentially innovations to support a growing international industry. And the growth of the industry fuelled scientific research and led to developments like the invention of synthetic dyes (which
Textile and Clothing Industry
Manufacturing doesn’t get much older than the textile and clothing industry. Since the earliest days when we lived in caves there’s been a steady demand for something to wrap around us to keep warm and to protect the more sensitive bits of our anatomy from the worst of the elements. What began with animal hides and furs gradually moved into a more sophisticated activity with fabrics woven from flax or wool – and with people increasingly specializing in the business.
In its early days this was very much a cottage industry – quite literally people would spin wool gathered from sheep and weave simple cloths on home-made looms. But the skill base – and the technology – began to develop and many of the family names we still have today –Weaver, Dyer, Tailor, for example – remind us of the importance of this sector. And where there were sufficient cottages and groups of people with such skill we began to see concentrations of manufacturing – for example the Flemish weavers or the lace-makers in the English Midlands. As their reputation – and the quality of their goods – grew so the basis of trading internationally in textiles and clothing was established.
The small-scale nature of the industry changed dramatically during the Industrial
Revolution. Massive growth in population meant that markets were becoming much bigger while at the same time significant developments in technology (and the science underpinning the technology) meant that making textiles and clothing became an increasingly industrialized process. Much of the early Industrial Revolution was around the cotton and wool industries in England and many of the great innovations and machinery – such as the spinning jenny – were essentially innovations to support a growing international industry. And the growth of the industry fuelled scientific research and led to developments like the invention of synthetic dyes (which