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The cotton sweater story
I don’t need to remind you about how much you love our cotton sweaters, cotton jerseys, cotton cardigans and cotton v-neck jumpers etc. Our cotton sweater range is as popular as ever, and you don’t stop buying them from us. But have you ever thought about were cotton originated from?
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Cotton History
To start with, it has to be admitted no one knows exactly how old cotton really is. Pieces of cotton cloth found in a Mexican cave turned out to be 7,000 years old when examined by scientists, and the structure of this cotton was much like the cotton grown in America today.
It is also known that in the Indus River Valley in Pakistan, cotton was being grown, spun and woven into cloth 3,000 years BC. At the same time, the people of Egypt's Nile valley were producing and walking around in cotton clothing. So it is safe to say people have been enjoying wearing cotton clothing for some time now.
Cotton cloth arrived in Europe some time around 800 AD. It was brought here by Arab merchants. When that great man Columbus, discovered America in 1492, he was pleased to find cotton growing in the Bahamas. By 1500, due to improved transportation, cotton was exported just about everywhere in the world.
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The Cotton Business
The first commercial cotton businesses didn’t produce cotton as we know it today.
In the early part of the 17th century, the southern American colonies began growing cotton for their own clothing. You wouldn’t have liked one of their cotton sweaters. The cotton was very rough and coarse, and nothing like the Wool Overs cotton!
The production of cotton took a dramatic upward turn in the 18th century. Britain had acquired a large number of colonies which were suitable for growing cotton, and vast improvements in the textile industries machinery lead to stronger cotton yarns.
By the 19th century, the southern American states had grown into the biggest single supplier of cotton to the now thriving English textile mills.
At the beginning of the 20th century, America was growing more than half the world’s cotton. This was being made into sweaters, jerseys, cardigans, and just about anything else you could possibly imagine. Today cotton manufacturing is carried out mainly in Europe and Asia. |
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Cashmere Cotton Button Neck - Ref C25 |
Woolovers Cotton Range
Here at Wool Overs, we are proud of our cotton knits range. It includes modern masterpieces such as our cotton crop zipper cardigan, and timeless classics such as our cotton unisex Guernsey jersey.
These are good examples of just how far cotton has come, and I'm sure you will agree it has been a very long journey.
• More cotton facts
We hope you enjoyed this page about cotton sweaters. If you would like some more facts and information about cotton, we recommend the following site,www.cotton.org
View our range of quality cotton knits:- Silk/Cotton Fancy Frills Cardigan Cotton Italian Collar Cardigan
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