November 2013
| Business World Magazine | 83
In an esteemed series of essays, Historian Thomas Carlyle wrote that without clothes
there would be neither politeness, nor polity, nor police; he said all “society is founded
upon cloth.”Textiles may, indeed, represent the one industrial product with which we
come in direct contact every single day, but as much as these goods figure in the fabric
of our personal lives, they also function in the fulfilling of professional duties, from the
fire-resistant fabrics serving firefighters to antimicrobial materials used in healthcare,
and more. For more than a century, one national association has served to support the
innovations, safety and sustainability that so succinctly complements quality coming
from the textiles industry.
When reaching for a napkin at a restaurant,
or when grabbing a towel to wipe our hand
after working on the car engine, or when
simply putting on that uniform that we may
wear to work; the ability to so readily access
that seemingly simple piece of textile prod-
uct may allow one to take for granted the
science, the engineering, the manufacturers
and suppliers which all served to make that
product available. What’s more, when that
