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_Whitetigress's avatar

Can you help me with a list of clothing materials? (Details inside!)

Asked by _Whitetigress (4375points) September 2nd, 2012

So to clarify I’m looking for names like, Cotton, Velvet and etc.

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16 Answers

gailcalled's avatar

Cotton, wool, linen, silk, rayon, polyester, nylon, hemp, microfiber, leather, recycled plastic bottles.

Velvet is cotton, nylon or silk with a short pile.

Lace is cotton or silk thread that has been arranged in a pattern.

creative1's avatar

silk
chiffon
corduroy
leather
polyester
polyester blend
satin

gailcalled's avatar

Chiffon, corduroy and satin are not primary fabrics.

Chiffon is a form of silk or nylon.
Corduroy is a form of cotton
Satin is usually a form of silk

None are proper nouns, and as such, do not start with an upper case letter.

YARNLADY's avatar

As @gailcalled pointed out, there are many different names within any category, such as canvas, corduroy, flannel, broadcloth are all cotton, knit and jersey, which can be made from any of several different primary threads.

Pandora's avatar

Here’s a long list of different textiles and their description.
Enjoy! You may get dizzy. LOL

Sunny2's avatar

How can we forget denim?

LuckyGuy's avatar

And my favorite: Tencel

Response moderated (Spam)
Earthgirl's avatar

Whe you say ‘material’ do you mean what the fabric is made from or do you mean what type of fabric it is?
I know this is a liittle technical but if you’re interested in understanding about textiles it will help you to understand the difference between a fiber name which denotes what the textile is made from and a variety of fabric which denotes some of its characteristics. The fibers are divided between those that are natural and those that are synthetic. Some fabrics are blends of both.

Fabric names can tell you how it is woven, the texture, traditional color, whether or not it has a nap (such as velvet) etc.

A lot of people get mixed up between the fiber name and the fabric name. You could have a velvet that is silk or a velvet that is polyester or a blend of fibers.

There are literally thousands of fabrics and some of them were more popular in other times. You come across the names such as linsey-wolosey in books sometimes.
The fabric that Dorothy’s dress is made out of in the Wizard of Oz is called gingham which is really popular for children’s clothing. The name comes from the Malay word ‘gingang’. The fabric was originally made there in Indonesia and that’s how it got its name. In the Napoleonic Era very fine muslin, a cotton fabric was made in India and was extremely popular for women’s dresses. Only in India could they make the finest quality batiste. Now it is mostly used for Christening dresses and handkerchiefs, The history of textiles has a lot of great stories in it.
Pandora That’s a weird list of mostly uncommon outmoded fabric names. It was really funny though that I came up with the same list when I was looking for something uncommon. Lol, you got there first.

If you tell me what you need the list for I can be more specific.
Do you want the most popular types of fabrics? Do you need a picture to show you what it looks like?

Earthgirl's avatar

@gailcalled In this day and age, sadly, satin is more often polyester than it is silk. Acetate used to be a popular fiber to use for satin too but it was terrible when it came to washing and wasn’t very durable. The one thing it had going for it was that it took dyes well so you could get really brilliant, beautiful colors. Now it has become too expensive and isn’t used much anymore.

Here is a good guide to types of fabric.

gailcalled's avatar

@Earthgirl; I wrote “usually,” but you are right. There is a lot of sleazy almost-satin. Check out the satin gowns cut on the bias worn by the slinky actresses of the thirties, including Ginger Rogers, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Mona Loy and Claudette Colbert.

Earthgirl's avatar

@gailcalled I know I know!!! I have made many bias cut gowns in my days designing lingerie. In design school my original inspiration was Jean Harlow. Actually, as far as looks are concerned the polyester charmeuse you find nowadays can be almost indistinguishable from silk. But polyester makes you sweat and silk doesn’t. Plus silk takes dye better and you can get colors in silk that are impossible with polyester. It’s not glaringly obvious what the difference is unless you have an eye for color. I do.

gailcalled's avatar

I have a black-and-white photo of my mother in 1932 (aged 17), wearing a clingy satin mid-calf length dress. When I showed it to her in 2011, when she was 96 and incapable of remembering anything, including whether she had brushed her teeth five minutes ago, she said, “That was peach and my boyfriend though it was sexy.”

The outline of her underwear and the bump of the bellybutton is visible.

Earthgirl's avatar

@gailcalled That is great! I love that. Fashion is amazing isn’t it? My own grandmother looked totally glamourous in her satin wedding dress at age 17 too! It’s one of my favorite pictures.

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