Origins

30° N

Egypt

cotton, historically linen

Linen was woven here as early as the Neolithic, and the Tarkhan Dress in the Petrie Museum is among the oldest woven garments in the world (3482–3102 BC). Egypt began growing fine long-staple cotton in 1821; four decades later the American Civil War turned it into a world commodity.

Today the Giza varieties are grown in the Nile Delta and in Upper Egypt, and the Egyptian Cotton™ trademark is managed by the Egyptian Cotton Association.

• Egyptian clothing and textiles
• Egyptian cotton

51° N

Belgium

linen

Flemish Kortrijk was already specialising in white linen damask in the 15th century, and the linen trade boomed in the 16th. In the 19th century flax was retted on a large scale directly in the River Leie (Lys), known as the “golden river” because of its yellowed water. Later, warm-water retting in tanks drove it out of the river.

The Belgian Linen™ mark is managed by the Belgian Flax & Linen Association: the fabric must be woven in Belgium from at least 85% flax grown in the EU.

• European linen and certifications

49° N

France

linen

The world’s largest grower of flax fibre. According to the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, France accounts for 85 to 90% of Europe’s at least 220,000 hectares of flax (2026). Most of it is grown in the north of the country.

French fibre does not necessarily mean French fabric – only the Masters of FLAX FIBRE™ and Masters of LINEN™ certifications guarantee the chain.

• Linen – overview
• European linen and certifications

54° N

Ireland

linen

The Huguenot Louis Crommelin came to Lisburn in 1698, became overseer of the royal linen manufacture and brought looms and weavers from Flanders and Holland. Ulster became a byword for linen.

Today the Irish Linen Guild defines Irish linen as yarn spun in Ireland from 100% flax, with Irish weaving and design; the fibre is imported mainly from France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Lisburn Museum holds a sample of linen from Tutankhamun’s tomb.

• Irish linen

21° N

India

cotton

The oldest known cotton threads from the Indian subcontinent were found in a Neolithic grave at Mehrgarh (in today’s Pakistan), dating from the 6th millennium BC – preserved in mineralised form inside a copper bead.

According to a Textile Exchange report, India grew half of the world’s organic cotton in the 2019/20 season.

• Organic cotton

41° N

Portugal

cotton and linen processing

The northern Ave region around historic Guimarães is one of the most industrialised in the country; textiles, clothing and garment-making are its main industries.

We are preparing a more detailed report on Portuguese textiles – for now we include only what we have verified.

45° N

Italy

wool, silk, processing

Biella in Piedmont already had guilds of wool workers and weavers in statutes dating from 1245 – thanks to mountain pastures and water for washing fleece and driving mills. In 1835 a former silk building there became a woollen mill with power looms.

Around 2000 a crisis hit the local cloth mills. In our index Italy stands mainly for wool; we will add wool to the index.