Textile Glossary: Suiting Fabrics The - Fabrics
TAILORING, also known as suitings, is a family of textiles used for men’s and women’s suits, three-piece suits, jackets, pants, skirts and dresses.
History
A tailored garment is crafted through a technique known as tailoring, where garments are designed and made to fit closely to the body.
Tailored clothing was originally developed in northern countries among nomadic peoples to protect them from the cold without impeding movement.
In Europe, such fitted apparel was unisex until the early 14th century, when men began wearing doublets and pantaloons, the ancestors of tailored clothing. During the Renaissance – a time of wealth, conquest and discovery – this outfit became a way to express elegance, poise and seductive appeal.
At that time, tailoring was a highly esteemed craft, involving the ability to trace and enhance the body while enabling it to move freely. The tailor often worked cross-legged – in French, “en tailleur” – to craft a rounded shoulder or shawl collar. A tailored garment, like the body itself, eschews straight lines – a fact that serves to underline the importance of choosing fabrics that are both stable and workable.
In the 1870s, Redfern, originally a British tailoring firm, made history by creating the first suits for women, known as “tailleurs” in French.
Whether for men or women, tailored suits are by now firmly established as an essential clothing item that transcends all boundaries and continues to espouse certain formal codes.
In terms of fabrication techniques, tailored constructions are in general the opposite of soft dressmaking. The first are structured garments built from complex cuts, such as jackets, coats, shirts, etc., while soft dressmaking, known as ‘flou’ in French, refers to a style of fabricating fluid garments such as dresses, blouses and draped looks from light, delicate materials.
Characteristics
TAILORING fabrics are therefore destined for suits. They include all the woven wools known as suit weights, or suitings, as opposed to coat-weight wovens or broadcloths, which are usually referred to as WOOLENS.
Tailoring fabrics must be:
- fine to accommodate the layering required to make a pair of pants, for example
- sturdy to stand up to bending and pulling
- wrinkle-resistant to meet the needs of a certain formal look
- supple to ensure the comfort and fit of tailored pieces.
Composition
Wool has proved to be an excellent material for suitings. Wool is naturally resistant to creasing and has the suppleness needed to accommodate ease allowance, and assist in the characteristic shaping of tailored garments.
All wool qualities (fine or coarse, carded or combed, sheep’s wool or other hairs) are possible.
A Super 100’s qualification is theoretically a combed yarn with a metric number of 100. “Super” wools (ranging from 80 to 250’s) are characterized by their significant fineness in combed suitings, which grow more lighter and more fluid as the number is higher.
Note: In 2006, in response to misuse of this designation, the IWTO published a charter for Super wools, indicating not only the metric number, but also the micron or average diameter of the wool fibers.
Other materials are blended with or substituted for wool to make the same kind of products, and thus can also be called woolens and classified as TAILORING fabrics.
- Silk blends are classics of sophisticated, dressy TAILORING
- Cotton blends for a more casual look
- Linen blends lend elegance without being formal
- Elastane blends for form-fitting volumes
- Polyester or polyamide blends are normally stronger, easier to care for and less expensive than pure wool, but this can vary depending on the article. Polyester can retain a pressed pleat
- Viscose blends (or Tencel, modal…) contribute a lively suppleness.
Construction
TAILORING fabrics are mainly plain wovens, and lean to twill weaves – which allow for a bit of play when it comes to ease allowance – in particular cross-twills.
Suiting fabrics list:
Tweed
History: Tweeds have been around since the 14th century as a Scottish trademark for two-tone carded wool fabric, with weft and warp yarns of the same count. Originally destined for farmers and peasants, tweed was adopted by the gentry in the 19th century. In 1956, Gabrielle Chanel, captivated by the fabric, introduced her first tailored suit in tweed, specially made to her specifications. Since then, tweed has been used in countless imaginative ways.
Technical description: Traditional tweed is made from carded, irregular yarns composed of strands of different colors (at least two), woven in twill, plain or herringbone weaves. (Fancy tweeds mainly play on torn-out, multicolored and blurred effects).
Characteristics : Tough, durable, stain-resistant, heat-regulating and rain-resistant.
Variants : Donegal: A rustic plain-weave tweed with warp and weft in different colors and irregular, slubbed or knopped yarns. Cheviot: A tweed made from the wool of Cheviot sheep, renowned for its strength.
Product applications: Classic suits, jackets, coats, pants, caps. Originally used for hunting, fishing, riding and other outdoor activities.
Flannel
History: Originating in Wales in the 17th century, the word means “woolen garment” in Welsh. Originally, it referred to a warm garment worn next to the skin. The Industrial Revolution accelerated its production thanks to mechanical carding processes. During the American Civil War, flannel, an inexpensive yet sturdy material, was used to make American soldiers’ coats and underwear. Today, by extension, the word is also used for the brushed cotton fabrics used for over-shirts, for example.
Technical description: A plain-weave or twill fabric, milled and brushed on both sides.
Characteristics: Fluffy, soft and insulating, prone to pilling.
Product applications: Pants, women’s suits, jackets, dresses, over-shirts and pajamas.
Barathea
History: A fabric whose French name – Grain de Poudre – is inspired by its dry, grainy feel.
Technical description: A combed suiting with strong texture, with a fluted weave or reps.
Characteristics: Dry, dense and springy handle with an even, grainy feel. Its light-absorbing structure lends depth to its color, especially black.
Product applications: Tuxedos and tails (black-tie dress codes), with an appreciable contrast between the matt look of the barathea and satiny trims, stripes and belts
Bouclette
History: The fabric takes its name from the yarns it is made from.
Technical description: Single-weave fabric (usually a plain or twill), made with curly bouclette yarn.
Characteristics: A blurry, curly, frothy and puffy look, more or less pronounced depending on the density, volume and distribution of the bouclette yarn. Note: bouclette fabrics serve a primarily aesthetic function.
Product applications: Jackets, suits, coats, pants, skirts, etc.
Find the rest of the suiting fabrics in our upcoming Textile Glossary article.