Spandex, under the brand name Lycra, quickly took off after it was introduced in 1962. This ad was published in Good Housekeeping in October of that year.

Thank(?) Joseph Shivers For Spandex

From Spanx to space suits, spandex has shaped modern garments

A demonstration of the technology, with the light fabric sewn into a onesie

These Light-Emitting Pajamas Could Help Treat Newborns With Jaundice

The method has an advantage over traditional phototherapy in that it allows babies to receive treatment in the comfort of their parents’ arms

A Viking-age woven band of silk displays patterns in silver thread discovered to be Arabic script

New Research

Did Vikings Bury Their Dead in Clothing Bearing the Arabic Word for “Allah”?

While contact between Vikings and Muslim cultures is well documented, the interpretation of the 10th-century burial cloth has been called into question

Petit Pli

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Origami Clothes Grow With Your Child

Designer Ryan Yasin is creating pleated garments that could save on money and waste

A friendly Nauga.

How the Nauga and its Fictional Friends Helped Make Synthetic Fabric Cuddly

What started out as an advertising ploy turned into a low-key cultural phenomenon

Spider silk is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar, but making it in the lab has eluded scientists for decades.

New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water

Researchers at Cambridge University have developed a process for making strong, stretchy threads in an environmentally friendly way

The burial chamber containing the model looms

New Research

Model Looms Are Missing Link in China’s Textile History

Four miniature pattern looms found in a burial in Chengdu show how the Han Dynasty produced cloth to trade on the Silk Road

This dress is made with the power of cow manure.

Cool Finds

Fashion Made From Cow Poo Wins Innovation Award

Mestic looks to manure to produce bioplastic, paper and fashion-forward textiles

Silkworm cocoons

New Research

Feeding Silkworms Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene Makes Super-Tough Silk

A diet rich in graphene or carbon nanotubes causes the creatures to produce a fiber twice as strong as normal silk

Some of the threads discovered at Must Farms are the width of a human hair.

Cool Finds

This Ball of Thread Is 3,000 Years Old

If it is simply held in the wrong way, the priceless artifact could crumble to pieces

How the American Civil War Built Egypt’s Vaunted Cotton Industry and Changed the Country Forever

The battle between the U.S. and the Confederacy affected global trade in astonishing ways

A 400-year-old dress was recovered from a 17th-century shipwreck off the Dutch coast.

Cool Finds

Dutch Divers Found a 17th-Century Dress Buried Under the Sea

The 400-year-old gown was remarkably well-preserved

A close-up of fabric in a loom

Taking a Cue from Textile-Making to Engineer Human Tissue

Researchers in search of a faster, cheaper way to engineer human tissue found success in traditional textile production methods.

An illustration of a prosthetic hand.

Cool Finds

Sensors Designed for Prosthetic Hands Could Lead to New Textile Standards

Haptic sensors might help figure out if thread count really matters

Cool Finds

A Brief History of Plaid

From highlanders to hipsters

Pacchanta's Maria Merma Gonzalo practices weaving techniques that have changed little in 500 years.

In a Small Village High in the Peruvian Andes, Life Stories Are Written in Textiles

Through weaving, the women of Ausangate, Peru, pass down the traditions of their ancestors

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Handicraft Heaven: Nine Unique Gifts to Buy Along the Inca Road

Leave room in your suitcase for these irresistible items

Today, where the concept of “disruption” has become so popular in business, those developing apps and new startups can look to the Singer Sewing Machine as one of the original disruptive technologies.

How Singer Won the Sewing Machine War

The Singer Sewing Machine changed the way America manufactured textiles, but the invention itself was less important than the company’s innovative business

“The [museum] is a beautiful example of the strategic ‘borrowing’ that created the rich cultural environment we have all inherited from the African continent.”

Is Architecture Actually a Form of Weaving?

David Adjaye, architect of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, approaches building design as creating “fabric”

Zsanett Szirmay draws on traditional Hungarian embroidery and cross-stitch patterns in "Soundweaving."

Cool Finds

This Music Is Made of Embroidery

Here’s what happens when you feed historical cross-stitch through a music box

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