Title: Roundtable: The Business of Fabric/The Fabric of Business
Participants:
Dr. Lin Gardner, University of Glasgow
Prof. Barbara Hahn, Texas Tech University
Dr. Jade Halbert, University of Huddersfield
Prof. Marina Moskowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Prof. John Styles, Emeritus Professor at University of Hertfordshire and Visiting Professor at California Institute of Technology
[Marina Moskowitz will also serve as moderator for the panel.]
Rationale:
This panel will explore the state of the field of the study of textiles (writ large to incorporate production and distribution of both fabrics and the garments and furnishings—fashionable and everyday—made from them) within business and economic history.
About 50 years ago, the journal Textile History was founded, primarily as a repository for research on the production and distribution of textiles, seen as a key component of the understanding of the political economies of the early modern word as well as the industrial revolution—the journal responded to a belief in at least some academic sectors that textiles were key to understanding business and economic history. While the remit of that particular journal has expanded, so too have the wealth of case studies contributing to the fields of business and economic history. More recently, the history of fashion, considered as an economic and cultural system rooted in understandings of consumer culture as much as the production of specific items of material culture, has captured the research interest of some business and economic historians (see, for example, the BHC/EBHA 2009 Conference in Milan).
Reflecting on these varied trajectories, it appears an appropriate moment to consider the place of textiles in the histories of business, economics, and capitalism. This roundtable will discuss a broad spectrum: from production to consumption; from textiles to garments and other furnishings; from the late medieval period through the twentieth century; from quantitative to qualitative sources and methods. We will consider what is most fruitful about studying topics at the intersection of textile and business history, and ways in which that intersection can inform broader themes in our field such as innovation, industry, circulation, trade and enterprise.
Specific contributions by the panelists to the discussion will include:
Dr. Lin Gardner’s interest in the intersection between textile history and business history stems from her examination of the development of the sewing machine as a manufacturing tool, with important business to business exchange between sewing machines makers (notably Singer) and a variety of manufacturers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Analysis of the complex relationship between machine maker and machine user served to reveal the challenges and dilemmas that stimulated machine specialization and technical innovation. Object studies of garments emphasized the significance of garment construction to the direction of sewing machine development, and trade catalogues illustrated the vital exchange of knowledge that underpinned the company’s business growth and market dominance.
Prof. Barbara Hahn research for Technology in the Industrial Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020) brought her into conversation with the economic history of textiles. Among economic historians, debates about "Why did England industrialize?" have cycled from factor endowments (wages, coal prices) to culture (Enlightenment, laws, lecture culture). Hahn contrasts these either/or approaches with the methods used by historians of technology which can incorporate local canal laws and global trade patterns (and more) into the familiar story of new machinery.
Dr. Jade Halbert focusses on the commercial structures and business strategies that support what has often been portrayed as the glossy surface of fashion history. She is especially interested in how commercial imperatives shape aesthetics and affect the creation and development of fashion trends, especially in late twentieth-century Britain. Material culture and oral history are at the heart of her research and she seeks to reconcile business history with fashion history by revealing the ways in which the history of fashion has always been a history of business.
Prof. Marina Moskowitz works at the intersection of business history and material culture, and has recently worked on a variety of projects focusing on textiles. Most recently, she has explored the economic underpinning and commercial relationships of the Folly Cove Designers, a twentieth-century American collective of “designer-craftsman” specializing in linoleum block prints on textiles for domestic use. She is also undertaking research on the history of knitting in Scotland, which seeks to bring together literature on hand, frame, and machine knitting into one historical narrative. Her contribution to the roundtable will be a broad consideration of “enterprise” as it relates to a spectrum of textile production, distribution, and marketing.
Prof. John Styles has worked extensively on the economic history of “everyday” material culture including textiles. He has written on the consumption of everyday fashion, and is now completing a monograph on the place of hand spinning in early modern economies. His research bridges scholarship on the production of textiles and the consumption of fashion that are too often considered separately, and considers the ways in which textiles sat at the heart of capital accumulation and investment.
Format: Each participant in the roundtable will offer a brief introduction to their research trajectory, explaining how they came to explore the intersection of textile history and the history of business, economic, and capitalism. They will then address and discuss a few questions posed by the moderator on the significance of this hybrid research, sources and methods, and forms of presenting this research, eg, in written form, museum exhibition, etc. They will then welcome questions from the audience.
Note on Proposal: As a roundtable discussion, individual panellists will not submit paper abstracts, but will upload cv's.