V & A Visit - Notes and Reflections on the Trade between East and West

Theory V & A visit  - Trade between East and West (Textiles and Worldwide Trade 1600 – 1900)

Relevant to study and design in Britain

From 1800’s fabrics started to be imported to the UK from India – they are famous for the Paisley pattern.

East Indian Company – organization to trade repeats with countries

Why did Europeans want Indian Textiles?

To trade in south-east Asia for spices, tea and coffee (spice islands)

Trade Indian textiles for these goods

To trade in Africa for gold and ivory

As luxury goods for Europe where cotton + cashmere did not grow

As washable substitutes for European woven silk, wool + linen

Can’t grow a lot of fabrics in European countries, need the warm heat to grow types of plants

Indian dyers worked out how to make dye that didn’t wash out on prints, very highly skilled and Europeans needed to have raw materials to grow and make the dye.

What was special about Indian Textiles?

Very fine cotton ‘muslin’ – lighter and softer the European linen

Printed cotton ‘chintz’ with bright colours that could be washed – unlike painted European linens

Trade up to 1770 – advantage to India

Indian patterns adapted for different markets

Good at producing fabrics

Japanese designers started using Indian designs and techniques

Very highly skilled designers

Indian designers knew exactly what people wanted, even though they had never been to the spice islands

Trade after 1700 – advantage to Britain

British trading cotton to Indian, to produce cotton textiles

Technology developed – spinning jenny (machine for spinning cotton)

1770  - water power used to drive spinning machine

1783 - roller printing developed in Egland

1800 - England was the most important trader of cotton

Making textiles in Britain for India

Design researcher – going round India to see what was most in demand

British manufacturers and traders studied India and other Asia consumers tastes

By 1860, British firms were designing and making printed cottons that would sell in India, China, Burma, West Africa…

Local markets were undercut – traders compete

India wanted new exciting designs

British made mass market cheaper designs

Garments started to be produced with a Japanese cut and Indian design with European silks, textiles started to mix and change.

Indian, Japanese and Chinese motifs were being pushed together – bazaar!

Every family in England had to have embroidered fabrics of silk, showing wealth and that they were worthy. But because the fabrics were so expensive, people couldn’t always afford them, so families would take the pattern home and sit and stitch as a family.

Thoughts from the lecture and V & A visit

What I found really interesting about this lecture and visit is learning that Indian designers were willing to adapt their pattern and designs for different markets, such as us, the Europeans, even though they would never even wear the garments that they produced. 

The trade industry changed when Britain started selling and producing textiles for India.  Even though India wanted new exciting designs, there local markets were being undercut by an MEDC, England, which is a wealthy country, so therefore India (an LEDC) was loosing out on revenue, which doesn’t make sense when India have highly skilled designers and produce good fabrics.  Researching into the topic, I realised that the main reason that the trade industry changed was because of modernization of technology in Britain.  Britain could mass produce designs and make printed cottons cheaper.  The patterns used on the cotton were direct imitations of Indian designs, just machine printed instead of hand produced.  So therefore local industries and designers in India couldn’t compete with the traders from European countries because people found that their fabrics were a lot cheaper and cotton was introduced into Indian, which they couldn’t produce because they didn’t have the technology, which Britain could see they were in demand for.