It’s About Fabrics

This week I’d like to talk about fabrics. I’m going to do my best to not make it read like a tutorial, but that’s going to be a little hard, because it is a tutorial. So please bear with me, because there may be stuff in here that will be useful to you. I’m going to share with you information I learned the hard way, as a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. 

First, let’s talk about Natural Fibers. I’m going to stay with those that are typically used in the manufacture of garments:

• Cotton You surely know about this as the cotton plant is grown, harvested and manufactured in temperate climates all over the world. Most cotton is woven into a crisp, plain-weave fabric, but it is also woven into soft, sheer fabrics like cotton chiffon: crisp, sheer fabrics like organdy (organza): velvets and heavyweight canvas. And, of course, there are the ubiquitous cotton knits in every conceivable weight.

• Silk is another fabric that needs no introduction. It is primarily produced in Asia, although small quantities are produced in other places in the world. It’s made by boiling and laboriously unwinding the cocoons of Mulberry Silk Worms. We generally think of silk as being lightweight, but it comes in virtually all fabric weights from chiffon to jacquards and upholstery-weight tapestry. (Almost unbelievably expensive.)

• Linen is thought by many to be the world’s oldest textile (although a few experts claim that cotton has that distinction). It’s woven from flax fibers and although you might think of it as being a crisp summer fabric, it can appear in almost any weave from chiffon to velvet and industrial sacking.

• The Wools If you think wool only comes from sheep, you’re only partly right. Most wools do come from sheep, but it also comes from rabbits (angora), goats (cashmere and mohair), the Llama family ( llama, alpaca and vicuna), and yes, even camels (you’ve heard of a camel-hair coats). You already know about the versatility of sheep’s wool. It is woven into everything from chiffon to blankets and rugs. Most of the more exotic wools are reserved for the luxury market and are usually made into fine suiting and knits.

• The Cellulose Fabrics include Rayon, viscose, lyocell, acetates and innumerable others, which can be produced from almost any fibrous plant. The most familiar are certain woods, bamboo and hemp. Again, they can be processed into almost any weave, weight or texture. Some people refer to the cellulose fabrics as “semi-synthetics” but I don’t make that distinction. Although these fabrics do require a lot of industrial processing, they “breathe” and, most importantly, they bio-degrade. I consider this the greatest distinction between “synthetics” and “natural” fibers.

The Synthetic Fibers can mimic any of the fabrics I’ve discussed and some of them are very good. They are easy to come by and cheap. I personally try to avoid synthetic fabrics (you know, polyester) for a couple of reasons. The main one is that, although the natural fabrics do consume resources to grow and undoubtably produce some pollution in manufacture, the true synthetics come out of straight-up, unblushing smokestack industry and, like their sibling, plastic, they never die because they cannot decompose (or bio-degrade) like natural fibers.

The second reason is that although there has been slight improvement in second generation synthetics, the less expensive, older technology synthetics don’t “breathe.” Wearing them can be like walking around in a plastic suit. They can also chemically bond with deodorants and other chemicals, like perfumes, to produce an awful smell that cannot be washed out because it is chemically bonded in the fabric.

Having said that, synthetics are difficult to avoid. It’s almost impossible at a lower price point and I’m frequently amazed to see it in multi-thousand dollar designer garments that were cut from polyester blends or even all polyester.

You can avoid the “plastic suit” problem by buying poly-blends with at least 25% natural fiber. The older technology (stinky) polyesters aren’t as common as they used to be, but are still around in very low priced garments, particularly knits.

Next, Weaves

What is this thing called a “Weave?’ Well, some might say it’s a hair-enhancing technique, but I’m talking about weaving on looms.

I get so frustrated when I read the description of a garment I’d like to use, either on my website or my Pinterest profile, and it says the dress or blouse, or whatever, is made of “silk.” That is basically meaningless because silk can be anything from the most ephemeral wisp of chiffon to something that looks quite a lot like gunny sacking, depending on the type and adjustment of the loom that was used to produce the fabric.

If I say something about “Satin” or “Velvet” or “Twill” you probably think you know what it is—satin is that smooth, shiny fabric, velvet is that, uh, velvety? fabric, and twill? maybe that’s the stuff that expensive scarves are made of?

Well, while none of that is precisely wrong, it’s not actually right, either. What they all have in common is that they’re weaves. That is to say, they’re woven on looms that produce a particular type of weave - like a satin weave.

When you read a description that refers to “cotton satin” (sateen) or “cotton velvet” (velveteen), that just means that it’s cotton that’s been woven on a satin loom that produces a “satiny” finish or a velvet loom that produces a velvet “pile.”

So, let’s begin with looms. This one is easy because there are only three basic types of looms and one variation. Satin Looms, Twill Looms and Plain-Weave Looms. Velvet looms are specialized variations of plain-weave looms. I’m only discussing industrial looms, here. I’m not going to get into hand looms and other exotica because they have little or no bearing on the clothing industry.

Between these three basic types, they can all be adjusted to produce literally thousands of different weaves.

It would be gratuitous and boring to describe the actual looming process like counts of warp and weft (although, poor me, I had to learn it). So, let’s just get down to what kinds of fabrics are produced by these looms and commonly used in today’s fashions.

Satin looms produce different weights of satin from the lightest charmeuse to heavy duchess and slipper satins and some jacquards. They can also be used with any fiber, both natural and synthetic.

Twill looms produce fabrics with a distinctive diagonal ribbing effect, from expensive silk scarves to heavyweight cotton and wool safari and bush jackets and other heavy-weights, like drills.

Plain-Weave looms make everything else. Anything that has one or more sets of threads running one way and another number running the other, is Plain-Weave.

Velvet looms produce anything with a “pile.” That’s the name of the tiny vertical threads that rise from the base fabric.

In earlier days, a loom (let’s say a plain-weave loom) would be adjusted for the weight of the fiber and type of fabric it was weaving. In modern production each weight of fiber would have its own loom(s), adjusted to its diameter and fabric type. These days, many modern textile factories weave only one weight of one type of fabric.

This is the most basic information and libraries-full of books have been written on almost every one of the things I’ve mentioned. If you are interested you can find a whole world of information online or on paper.

If you have a particular question, contact me on the Advice page of this website.

Next week I’ll explore accessories — how to use them most effectively and what they can do for you (hint: it’s a lot).

- Gabrielle