Briefing for Bespoke: Fabric
When we take the decision to add a new tailored piece to our wardrobe, I wonder how many people consider the properties of the textile selected. It seems to be more the case that we are driven by colour, pattern and style and neglect the nature of the chosen material and how it might perform. This, along with the next set of posts, will be devoted to the properties, care and maintenance of some of the main fabrics, and an exploration into the fibres and weaves that determine their characteristics. We have been helped in this by Nicholas Guilbaud at Holland and Sherry, specialists in the high quality traditional fabrics used in bespoke tailoring.
First some basics.
Other than its initial impact, there are four main factors to consider when selecting a length of material. The fibre, the nature of the fabric and its weave, the finish, and the mixture.
The fibre is the smallest perceivable element of a textile that is visible to the naked eye, and there are four main fibre shapes each with a unique cross-section.
- Flat-oval as found in types of cotton.
- Oval to round with overlapping scales such as medulla wool where its honeycomb-like core has minute air spaces
- Triangular with rounded edges as in silks or nylon
- Circular and uniform in diameter – fibres such as nylon, dacron or rayon.
The chemical composition of a fibre is determined by by either its natural or man-made origins. Natural fibres are either animal (wool, alpaca, camel, cashmere, mohair, vicuna, angora, silk), or vegetable (cotton, flax, linen, famie). The image to the left shows wild silk fibres in magnification. Man-made fibres can be either cellulose based (viscose, rayon, cupramonium rayon, acetate) or non-cellulose ( Nylon, polyester, acrylic, olefin, spandex). Fibres are spun into continuous threads called yarns which, according to the amount of twist, will influence its feel, absorbency, elasticity, lustre and strength. Although there are are other factors that come into play, at base level the fibre from which a garment is made determines the way in which it should be cared for, hence the washing instructions on the label in mass produced clothes.
The next step up is to turn the yarns into fabric. There are two ways of doing this; weaving or knitting. Most tailoring uses woven fabrics. The weaving process relies on two simple elements, the warp and the weft; two sets of yarns running perpendicular to each other. It It is the way in which these are combined, along with the tension within the yarn, that create all of the materials you see in a cloth merchants, from jaquards to tweeds. When yarns are dyed individually, it is the weaving of them that give us tartans, stripes or plaids. ‘Shot’ fabrics include a yarn that gives them an irridescence.
Here are examples of three simple weaves: plain cotton, twill and satin.
There are a number of different finishes used in the final preparation of the raw fabric. The most obvious is the application of dye, although as mentioned earlier the yarn can be dyed as a separate part of the process. Colour is probably the most influential factor for a customer, and garment manufacturers try to leave the process of dyeing as close to the final shipment of the fabric as possible. Except for specially commissioned fabric runs, the pipeline between the fibre manufacture to the consumer can be as long as two years which can make it a highly speculative operation when placed alongside the dictats of the fashion industry.
So far we have looked at single content fabrics; silks, cottons, wools etc. The final influencing factor however is the combination of fibres that might be used in a fabric, known also as mixture. So for example, lining fabrics I have been working with recently are a combination of viscose (95%) and lycra (5%). This combines the robust, anti-static qualities of viscose with the stretch of lycra.
This should give you a basic outline of the basic elements of fabric design. In the next post we will look at what you should expect from a fabric, how it performs.
Photo: thanks to Holland and Sherry, Olympusmicro and David Greenhalgh
