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 travels to Lubbock in Texas to watch the cotton harvest. It’s a town with a rich history where Buddy Holly’s band used to play at the local Cotton Club. Two local third-generation farmers, Dennis and Edwin, show Sofi the environmental changes they’ve witnessed on their land. She learns about the fragility of the area’s production processes and the effect on human health and wellbeing.

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