Cotton, a vegetable fibre made from silky filaments wrapped around the seeds of cotton plants, has been used for thousands of years to create fabrics. Generally transformed into a thread which is then weaved to create the fabrics, cotton is not only the number one natural fibre produced in the world, it remains the most used textile fibre as well, even taking into account the new synthetic fibres.

Archeological digs have uncovered proof that men have grown different species of cotton plants in India and in South America for thousands of years: in India for more than 3000 years; on the Northern coast of Peru since more than 5000 years; and within the caves of Mexico’s Tehuacán Valley about 7000 years ago. Some even maintain that it is very likely that Egyptians cultivated cotton more than 12000 years B.C. In fact, the oldest known written text mentions Indian cotton!

A legendary softness

Cotton’s almost mythical softness has always inspired men and their folklore. One of the very popular stories of the Middle Ages was the tale of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary or Scythian Lamb. This was the name given to the legendary plant of Central Asia. Depending on which version you read, the fruit or the tree itself was shaped like a lamb: it had its feet, its ears, its nails and its head! All that was missing were the horns, replaced by a tuft of hair! We can easily presume that this legend was a way of explaining the existence of cotton.