Â鶹ԼÅÄ

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 final episode, Sofi charts the history of wool from 19th century Wyoming shepherds to the Navajo women preserving their culture of weaving today. It’s a history that has been, at times, brutal and violent.

Read by Lanna Joffrey
Abridged and produced by Alexandra Quinn
A Loftus Media production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4