It's worth looking into the history of textile production prior to the invention of the spinning jenny and the industrial revolution (the first impact of which

It's worth looking into the history of textile production prior to the invention of the spinning jenny and the industrial revolution (the first impact of which was to trigger an exponential drop in the cost of cloth). From a modern perspective it was just jaw-droppingly labour-intensive -- and so was the process of turning it into garments. (Which is still primarily manual, albeit using machines that can sew seams in minutes that formerly took days of hand-stitching.) A good rule of thumb is that prior to the 19th century, a suit of clothes (mens or womens) was the equivalent of an automobile today in terms of status and ownership/maintenance costs as a proportion of income. Used garments were handed down, then dismantled and recycled as fabric for simpler/smaller clothing, and ultimately ended up as rags (which could be used for cleaning, paper-making, menstrual pads), still valuable in their own right ...