Grown, processed and worn exclusively in hot climates for millennia, by c.1200 small quantities of cotton were being imported from Venice to England and from the 1510s Levantine cotton reached Britain directly, being used for stuffing, quilting and yarn for candlewicks. The production of cotton goods within Britain was first recorded in the late 1500s and by the mid-1600s Lancashire had become a significant fustian-producing region, manufacturing much of the 40,000 lengths of fustian (cotton and linen mixes) produced in England annually, mainly using raw cotton from Cyprus and Smyrna (Turkey).

The emergence of a substantial Europe-wide cotton industry between the 1500s and mid-1700s was broadly facilitated by the development of a complex trade network between Britain and Europe, Africa and America, the latter involving the exchange of African slaves for European cloth and, in turn, the exchange of American raw cotton imported into England for slaves to work on the cotton plantations. More specifically, the embryonic British cotton industry depended on the English East India Company’s (EEIC) trade in raw cotton and finished cotton goods with India and, crucially, understanding of traditional Asian printing methods and of the tastes of different customers. For instance, British consumers purchasing Indian cotton textiles favoured designs using coloured dyes on a white background, whereas Asian and Near Eastern markets preferred dark red and blue backgrounds. In the late 1600s European printers learned advanced Indian techniques and in the early 1700s found new ways of printing blue motifs on white calicoes.

During the mid/late 17th and 18th centuries the EEIC traded over 50 varieties of Indian cotton fabric, the most popular including chintzes, cossaes, baftas and longcloth. Bright printed cotton chintzes were especially admired by the middle classes for dress materials and household furnishings such as curtains and bed hangings, but cotton was not yet considered an appropriate substitute for linen shirts and other underclothes. Following a partial ban in 1702, an act of 1721 in England strictly prohibited the sale and use of all Indian cottons, except for fine cotton muslins and blue-dyed calicoes, in order to protect and encourage domestic cotton manufactures. By the 1780s the ban was relaxed, by which time Britain had developed its own thriving cotton industry and was exerting a significant influence on Georgian fashion.