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The textile industry encompasses a multitude of specific processes and treatments aimed at giving yarns and fabrics particular properties and characteristics. Depending on the type of fibre or the finishing effect desired, various physical and chemical methods are used.

Among the common procedures, the following stand out: softening, finishing through re-passing, washing, brushing, levelling, singeing, sizing, and smoothing. Spinning encompasses the set of processes to which textile fibres, both natural and synthetic, are subjected in order to be transformed into uniform and resistant yarns.

Spinning, strictly speaking, consists of carrying out a final refining of the sliver to transform it into yarn, which is simultaneously subjected to twisting to give it the desired strength. Finally, the yarn is wound onto a support. Additionally, combing is performed, during which all or most of the shorter fibres are removed in order to obtain very fine and particularly uniform yarns.

Once both the yarns and fabrics have been produced, they undergo dyeing processes to achieve the desired colour. For this, chemical products are used if the fibres have not already been dyed before spinning.

Mercerisation is a textile process that involves treating cotton fibres or yarn (usually under tension) with concentrated sodium hydroxide. Through this process, the cotton acquires a certain silky sheen, becomes more resistant to tension, exhibits greater affinity for dye, and increases its chemical reactivity in various finishing processes.

The textile industry employs a wide variety of machines, in addition to the loom, which carry out specific operations that are either widely applied to most fibres or characteristic of the production of certain fabrics.

The loom is the weaving machine. This process consists of fabric production through the interlacing of two sets of threads: the warp and the weft. The loom has a long historical trajectory. Initially, it relied entirely on human power for its operation, and it was not until the late 1700s that the first mechanical loom appeared, initially powered by animals and later by steam energy. It became popular from 1820 onwards, leading to the widespread expansion of the textile industry.

There are different types of looms, distinguished by their components and operating principles. A shuttle loom consists of a drum where the warp threads are wound and from which they emerge in parallel; the thread guide, which properly tensions the warp threads; the shed formation mechanism, which is made up of two rods that divide the threads into two groups to create the shed; and the heddles, which are frames with an alternating vertical movement, where steel wires or heddles hold the warp threads and form the shed, positioning some threads up and others down.

Looms also include: a reed, whose back-and-forth movement pushes each pass of the weft thread; the race board, a surface on which the shuttle glides during its reciprocating motion; and the cloth beam, a cylinder where the woven fabric is wound. There are also shuttleless looms, which allow for the production of wider fabrics than conventional ones.

The Jacquard loom is named after the French inventor Jacquard, as it incorporates his machine, which consists of the following parts: a board where the hooks rest, known as the post; holes in the post through which the harness cords pass; harness cords; at the top, the griff, which moves up and down, carrying the knives that catch and lift the hooks; and the four-sided cylinder, through which the punched card chain passes—this forms a continuous loop containing the design to be woven. The cylinder moves automatically, positioning one of its four sides against the needles. At the bottom of each heddle, there is a weight, a counterbalance made of a thicker and heavier iron wire, ensuring that the harness remains taut and forces the threads downward.

Fabric, as a textile product, is the result of weaving threads, filaments, or fibres.
The textile industry encompasses all activities related to the production and processing of fibres, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finally, the finishing and manufacturing of various garments.

Originally, the term "textile" applied only to woven fabrics, but with the evolution of this industry, it now extends even to fabrics produced by methods other than weaving, such as those formed by mechanical bonding or chemical processes. Similarly, it applies to various raw materials and products derived from them, such as filaments, synthetic fibres, embroideries, quilted fabrics, yarns, and more.

These textile operations also include the preparation of natural fibres (vegetable or animal origin), where processes such as bleaching, dyeing, or mercerisation are carried out. Wool, which was the most commonly used natural fibre, began to be replaced by cotton, and although it was not entirely displaced, cotton did become the most widely used natural fibre of vegetable origin. In recent times, cotton began to lose its leading position in terms of demand for the textile industry, and was largely replaced by new synthetic and artificial fibres, derived from hydrocarbons, cellulose, and other sources.

The use of silk fibres from silkworms for the production of threads and fabrics constitutes one of the longest-standing sectors of the textile industry. The process of obtaining silk begins with the breeding of silkworms, or sericulture, from which the cocoons are harvested. When immersed in hot water, the cocoons lose part of the sericin, allowing the basic spinning process, known as "molinatje," which results in raw silk. Through scouring baths, the remaining gummy substance is removed to obtain degummed silk, which then acquires its classic feel. The filament in each cocoon has a length of over 1,000 metres. The actual spinning process involves gathering several prepared cocoons in a container of hot water, joining their ends, and passing them through a row of porcelain guides before proceeding with their winding. The filaments are thus bound together and form a thread that is smoothed through rubbing, either with the same thread or another. With silk thread, a wide variety of fabrics are made, which, due to their qualities of softness, strength, ease of washing, and visual appeal, have made silk the most prized of textile fibres for centuries.