Textile Industry and Society - SQA Higher Fashion and Textile Technology overview

The Textile Industry and Society area sets fashion and textiles in their wider context: their impact on the planet and on the people who make them, the technology reshaping what fabrics can do, and how products are cared for and labelled. It is where the subject connects to current debates about sustainability and ethics.

What the area covers

• Sustainability in textiles - the environmental impact of the textile life cycle, fast fashion, and ways to reduce impact (reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, sustainable fibres, the circular economy).
• Ethical and social issues - working conditions, pay and child labour in the global supply chain, fair trade and ethical sourcing, the economic role of the industry, and inclusive culturally aware design.
• Smart and technical textiles - reactive smart fabrics (thermochromic, phase-change, conductive) and high-performance technical fabrics for sport, medicine, protection and industry, plus technology in manufacture.
• Care of textiles and labelling - the international care symbols, mandatory labelling (fibre content, nightwear and furniture safety), and how correct care extends product life.

How to study this area

1. Think across the whole life cycle. Sustainability impacts happen at fibre production, manufacture, transport, use and disposal, not just at the bin.
2. Keep the hierarchies straight. Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle in order; reuse keeps the item, recycle breaks it down.
3. Separate ethical from environmental. Ethical and social issues are about people (pay, conditions, child labour, inclusion); environmental issues are about the planet.
4. Distinguish smart from technical. Smart textiles respond to a stimulus; technical textiles perform a demanding job; learn examples of each.
5. Learn the care symbols by shape. Washtub, triangle, square, iron, circle, and know which information on a label is legally required.

How it is assessed

This area is examined in the question paper and informs choices in the practical activity and assignment (sustainability, fibre choice, care). Command words decide the marks: describe, explain, distinguish (smart versus technical, reuse versus recycle) and discuss (weighing the industry's economic benefit against its ethical and environmental cost). Higher rewards balanced, applied answers over lists.

Where this area connects

Textile Industry and Society links to Properties of Fabrics (the environmental and care implications of different fibres), to Consumer and Design (ethical and environmental factors in consumer choice and the designer's social responsibility), and to the Course Assessment, where sustainable and appropriate choices are expected. Use the dot-point pages for detail and the quiz to check recall.