Sofi Thanhauser loves clothes.

She has travelled across the world to meet people making linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool to get to the heart of an industry which is worth four times the global arms trade.

In Worn: A People’s History of Clothing, Sofi examines what’s changed in the history of fabric production and explores local stories of craft, labour and industry. She wants to know how and why we moved from a system of making fabric for ourselves to a complex one that sullies creativity, the environment and worker rights.

Between 2000 and 2014, clothing production around the world doubled. This was possible because clothing had become almost completely disposable. But fast fashion’s evils aren’t new problems, textile making has been damaging our environment for centuries.

In this episode, Sofi profiles the oldest fibre - linen. How has it gone from a cloth worn by everyone to the preserve of the rich? Sofi travels to New England to find out more about the relationship between women, spinning wheels and cloth. From the museum guide in 18th century dress to descriptions of the women working in England’s industrial north, Sofi discovers that the female experience of manufacturing is often based on hard labour and exploitation.

Read by Lanna Joffrey
Abridged and produced by Alexandra Quinn
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4 Show less