The Towel and Bathrobe Cluster in Denizli

Textile production starts with the main inputs — natural or man-made fibres, dyes and chemicals — and involves two major operations, namely yarn preparation and fabric weaving. Although there are firms of all sizes operating at the various stages of production, larger firms have become increasingly dominant as the industry has become more and more capital-intensive. More than half of the output of the industry is used by clothing manufacturers. The rest goes to the manufacturers of household goods (for example bedclothes) and industrial goods (for example vehicle seat upholstery). Compared with the textile industry, the clothing industry is more labour-intensive and the technology used is less sophisticated. Distributors have become increasingly important in this sector due to the dominance of retail activities by large firms, a phenomenon that has affected the organization and geography of clothing manufacture (Dicken, 1998) since the Industrial Revolution. First Britain and then other developed countries such as Germany and France moved into the mass production of textiles, often in localized clusters. Later on the industry grew rapidly in developing countries and either stagnated or declined in developed ones. Despite this trend, however, several developed countries (including Italy, France, Germany and Britain) continue to be amongst the leading exporters of textiles and clothing.