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The degree of variation found in textiles is created by a number of different qualities that apply to it. Color is produced by dying textiles. Dying them enables manufacturers to create virtually any color that they like. Without the process of dying textiles, clothing and furniture upholstery would all take on the appearance of the initial fiber or fabric that was used to create it. Additionally, by treating the finished product of textiles one is able to produce variations in texture and feel of these fabrics. Some are course and bushy, others are fine and smooth. There is little end to the variation of color and texture that one can create with textiles, particularly after the Industrial Revolution.

Although textiles have been around for many thousands of years, their production and variation greatly increased with the Industrial Revolution. In Britain, some of the earliest manifestations of the newfound equipment and machines devised during this time period were for the creation, and refining of textiles. The textile industry truly flourished during the Industrial Revolution, which was largely responsible for the wide assortment of uses and applications of textiles in modern life. The Industrial Revolution helped to facilitate a degree of ease within the textile industry that enabled it to not only mass produce its goods, but also expand the scope and focus of them to the point where they are currently highly specialized and "provide a wealth of information about technology, their social significance and use, and aspects of ritual and cultural values" (Wimberley and Thompson, 2010, p. 348).

It is important to realize that there are different types of textiles with both subtle and pronounced differences. For instance, although the term cloth is frequently used synonymously with the term fabric, the former actually denotes a finished product that is used for a specific purpose. Fabrics, on the contrary, are used to make up certain finished products such as cloths and really refer to any type of material that has been put together through the aforementioned stitching or crocheting process. Textiles, however, is more of a general term that refers to any sort of fibers that have been woven together. There are some synthetic textiles in use, although the vast majority of them are organic. Whereas some of the more known textiles are from plants such as cotton, there are also animal textiles which are responsible for the creation of leather, nubuck, and suede finished products. The vast