In the 19th century and early 20th century starching was commonly used to make clothing more resistant to stains and wrinkles.
Since the 1990s, with advances in technologies such as permanent press process, finishing agents have been used to strengthen
embroidery digitizing fabrics and make them wrinkle free.
More recently, nanomaterials research has led to additional advancements, with companies such as Nano-Tex and NanoHorizons developing permanent treatments based on metallic nanoparticles for making textiles more resistant to things such as water, stains, wrinkles, and pathogens such as bacteria and fungi.
The majority of the universities textile graduates take posts in the textile manufacturing industries as process or plant managers, development engineers or technologists.
Graduates have found employment in production management,
digitizing design, textile testing and quality assurance, new product development, buying house, commercial banks, customs, etc.
A large number of BUTex alumni are working in the industries and academia both in Bangladesh and around the world.
According to a New York Times journalist by August 2012 the garment or textile industry which exports worth $18 billion a year, accounted for "80 percent of manufacturing exports and more than three million jobs" with predictions by McKinsey & Company of the industry tripling in size by 2020 (McKinsey 2001:10).
According to the 2014 Bureau of International Labor Affairs's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, the Bangladeshi garments and textile industry still employs underage children as effective governmental measures are taking considerable time to be implemented.