Whiter than White: Textile bleaching from solar energy and potash to sodium chloride.

Today brings a rare event: a total solar eclipse sweeping across Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, the sun's light briefly withdrawn before returning full strength. It's a fitting moment to think about sunlight's other power over cloth. In Niigata, snow bleachers have spent centuries harnessing the same sun to whiten ramie, laying echigo-jofu across snowfields each winter until light and melting snow do their work.

In celebration of today's eclipse, we're revisiting an article by Sophie Vent, first published in Selvedge Issue 122, Winter White. Her piece traces the history of textile bleaching, from the Dutch bleachfields of the 17th century to the ashes and buttermilk once used to whiten cloth long before chemicals entered the process. As the moon crosses the sun today, it's worth remembering how closely textile traditions have always followed its light...

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Further Information:

Written by Sophie Vent for Selvedge Issue 122, Winter White

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Image Credits:

Lead: The making of ojita-chijimi cloth includes laying out the fabric in the snow to bleach. 

All images as credited throughout the article.