Toward the end of the Stone Age (about 10,000 years ago) the first clue that early people had shown these designer careers was in the form of a sewn clothing made. In the southern regions, needles were made from carved bone. The thin needles were believed to have been used for stitching garments and weaving. In the northern regions of Europe, the tribes used leather straps to sew together skins. Holes were made in the garment and a hook was used to pull the leather thong through the skins.
Clearly, some people from the past were noted to be inherently artistic with the artistic skills similar to designer jobs. From pottery and wall paintings, archaeologists have clues to the design job in clothing of the ancient Egyptians. Material was woven from spun thread. Spinning thread was done on a spindle. The spindle is a long smooth stick with a notch at one end for catching the thread or yarn. Spinning the spindle against a bowl, called a whorl, produced a fairly even, continuous fiber. Weaving was the process used to form a fabric from the fibers. Weaving had been done to grass earlier by the Egyptians and other tropical people. Baskets, mats, and some clothing had been made by weaving and drying thin or thick grass blades or leaves.
In Egypt, the first design job in clothing worn by men was a band around the waist. This narrow piece of fabric was primarily decorative, with pendants and religious objects hanging from the band. The first clothing worn by Egyptian women were white linen skirts worn down to the ankles. The type of clothing worn in a certain location was often influenced by the climate. In warmer climates, both men and women tended to wear dresses and other loose-fitting apparel that did not wrap around the leg. Those in colder climates were more likely to wear pants.
Religious customs also influenced the type of apparel worn in a unique fashion design. For example, in the 12th century when the Muslims conquered north and central India, dramatic changes were made in the dress code so as to conform with Muslim practice. Up until the conquest, the warm climate had dictated that dress styles leave some of the body uncovered. But the Muslim practice of covering as much of the body as possible led to a change. Men began to wear wide trousers and long-sleeved coats that reached to the knees or below. Women wore long trousers, a long shirt-like garment, and an outer jacket.
In the Americas around 700 A.D, design jobs were also traced in the Indian tribes. They were weaving spun cotton threads into material for clothing. Cloth dyes were made from berries, ores such as iron, and plants such as the indigo. Patterns could be woven into the material or painted on the material. Weaving a pattern into the material was complicated. The Chinese had begun to weave complex patterns with silk threads between 2500 and 1000 B.C. The Persians imported Chinese silk during these centuries and developed a lucrative trade in silk brocade and fabrics.The spinning wheel increased the speed at which thread and yarns could be produced. In use by the 12th century, the origin of the spinning wheel is unknown. About the same time the two-bar loom was invented, increasing the speed at which the threads could be woven. For the next few centuries the art of fabric making would increase in beauty and clothes would become much more widely available.
The next wave of inventions to assist fabric makers in their art came during the 18th century where machine that served as a designer employment of arts and styles were applied. For instance, the spinning jenny, a machine that spun more than one thread at a time, was invented by James Hardgreaves around 1764. The water frame cotton spinning machine invented by Richard Arkwright made hard twisted thread from cotton instead of linen, the fiber used until then for the threads that ran the length of the fabric. In 1785, Edmund Cartwright developed a power loom that ran on steam. He opened a factory in England that used the machine for rapid production of fabric. Eli Whitney, an American inventor, developed the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin reduced the time and number of people required to clean the seeds from cotton. Indeed, the early design of fabrics and apparels of the past have given us the impression of the unique designer jobs and creativity of these early people which were- truly remarkable.
