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Prints, metallics and hi-tech coatings have breathed new life into the world's oldest textile. 'It's not your grandmother's tablecloth' any more ...Read the full article
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Stan Consultant from Canada writes: Fine, no one can expect a reporter for the fashion section to be well educated. But it is stunning that any reporter can type an entire article on the increasing popularity of linen while excluding several essential facts. First of all, pure linen is very expensive and rare simply because the reek of retting flax plants is so hideous and unspeakable that workers plainly refuse to do the job, no matter how high the pay.
Second, the various acids released by flax retting, which cause the unbearable stench, are some of the most toxic natural pollutants on Earth, and killed all life in many rivers of Europe from the 1200s to the 1700s, when retting flax in rivers was made virtually illegal in most European kingdoms, and the entire peninsula was forcibly converted to cotton. Please note this is a deadly form of pollution which has nothing to do with a 'carbon footprint'.
Disposing of the flax retting acids is still extremely difficult to do safely, and also extremely expensive, adding about 40 percent more to the retail cost of linen. Since these two factors are clearly very important to the linen market, there doesn't seem to be any reasonable explanation for why the reporter would leave them out of the article.- Posted 12/07/08 at 9:21 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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anonymouse Z from Canada writes: Good point, Stan. But then most in the fashion industry don't really care about pollution or reality.
- Posted 14/07/08 at 9:30 AM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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