Issue 131 Flow

“A little over a century ago, the notion of abundant clean water flowing from a tap would have been unimaginable to most. Today, it is so seamlessly embedded in daily life that it goes unnoticed. This quiet ubiquity has fostered not only a culture of abundance but also a belief in superabundance the illusion that natural resources will replenish themselves indefinitely. Nowhere is this more evident than in textiles, where water remains the invisible yet essential ingredient at almost every stage of production.

From fibre to finished cloth, water underpins the entire process. Silk cocoons are submerged to soften the sericin that binds their filaments, allowing them to be reeled. Cotton cultivation relies heavily on irrigation; wool is scoured before carding; and bast fibres such as flax, hemp, and jute are retted to break down pectins and release their fibres, which are then w