Rubber design dress as Fashion Fabric style
Natural rubber (caoutchouc) comes from latex, the milky
secretions of tropical plants that coagulate on exposure to air. Prior
to European discovery, the indigenous peoples of South and Central
America used rubber to waterproof fabrics. The initial use of rubber in
eighteenth century Europe was limited to elastic bands and erasers. Over
time, various methods evolved to grind rubber so that fillers and other
powders could be incorporated to stabilize thermal and chemical
properties. In the United States, Charles Goodyear hit upon
vulcanization (the process of treating rubber to give it useful
properties, such as elasticity and strength) in 1839. In 1842 English
inventor Thomas Hancock used his patented "masticator" on Goodyear's
vulcanized rubber, and what had been a lab curiosity became an
industrial commodity.
Successful vulcanization prompted Henry Wickham to smuggle rubber seeds
out of Brazil in 1876. British botanical experiments resulted in hardier
rubber plants that were exported to Malaysia, Ceylon, and Singapore
where dense plantings increased rubber yield exponentially. During World
War I, the Germans invented a synthetic rubber that was prohibitively
expensive. When Allied forces were isolated from Asian rubber
manufacturing centers during World War II, development of affordable
synthetic rubber and rubber-recycling processes became part of the war
effort. The reclaiming of cured rubber products was not commercially
viable until 1991 when the Goodyear Company developed environmen-tally
friendly devulcanization.
Rubber's elasticity, impermeability, stickiness, and electrical
resistance make it extremely useful as an adhesive, protective coating,
molding compound, and electrical insulator. Latex is cast, used as
sheeting, combined with powder that produces gases to form foam rubber,
or oxygenated to form sponge rubber.
By the twenty-first century high-tech fibers and laminates all but
replaced rubber for waterproofing apparel. However, from early Sears and
Roebuck "sweat" suits to twenty-first century haute couture, the
surface qualities of rubber continue to appeal to fashion designers and
fetishists alike. In the 1960s, John Sutcliffe's catsuits designed for
the Emma Peel character on the TV series The Avengers caused
rubber to come into vogue. In 2003, rubber wear combined with other
fashion fabrics was prominently featured in collections by Julien
Macdonald, Helmut Lang, Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, and John
Galliano for Christian Dior.
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