Cotton Fabrics: How Popular Are Traditional Cotton Materials Today?

Classic cotton fabrics are the traditional cotton materials that perhaps we can refer to as organic fabrics today. They are 100% pure and are produced from purely natural fibres that can be traced back thousands of years before Christ.

In today’s Egypt, the inhabitants of the River Nile valley discovered the adaptability of the fibres they got from plants. They wove these fibres into crudely made materials for their personal use. These fibres are derived from the cotton plant.

According to researchers, the oldest cotton cloth is a “6,200-year-old indigo-blue fabric from Huaca, Peru, making it one of the oldest-known cotton textiles in the world and the oldest known textile decorated with indigo blue”. The ancient cotton fabric was derived from Gossypium barbadense, the same species grown today, and known as Egyptian cotton.

Thousands of years down the line, we now have so many categories of cotton fabric.

classic cotton fabrics

How Popular Are Traditional Cotton Fabrics Today?

Classic cotton fabrics were mostly thick, rough, textured, durable and hardwearing. This was probably because many were woven with handlooms. With the advent of industrialisation, more cotton cloths became softer, smoother, sheer, and luxurious, beautiful enough to use for both clothing and furnishings. Other features of contemporary cotton, which also includes cotton blends, are its performance, versatility, absorbency, performance and strength.

The traditional cotton materials listed here include those that are still popular today and those that are not so popularly used among today’s fabric buyers.

  1. Muslin – A prized item among wealthy Roman ladies. It ranges from a delicately soft feel to a coarse and textured fabric.
  2. Cheesecloth – A gauze-like loosely woven cotton fabric used for cheesemaking and some printing processes.
  3. Buckram – A stiff cotton fabric mainly used for hats, bookbinding, and stiffeners for some elements of clothing.
  4. Dimity – This classic traditional fabric is a sheer lightweight cotton material usually produced in white. The weaving of Dimity evolved in the 1700s. It is commonly used for window treatments and light upholstery.
  5. Swiss dot – A lightweight sheer cotton material with small dots in its weave.
  6. Calico – Made from unbleached and semi-processed cotton.
  7. Batiste – A fine cotton fabric popularly used for handkerchiefs, lingerie, and high-quality garment lining.
  8. Duck cotton – Also called duck canvas or duck cloth. It is a heavyweight plain-woven fabric used for sandbags, canvases, footwear, and tents.
  9. Cotton gabardine – Traditionally, gabardine was made from tightly woven cotton fibres. It is a strong and durable fabric invented in the late 1800s by Thomas Burberry.
  10. Gingham – In the 17th century, gingham was first produced as a striped fabric but by the mid-18th century, it started to be woven with check or plaid patterns in white and blue colours.
  11. Longcloth – As its name implies, longcloth is a material that comes in comparatively long pieces. It was used primarily for men’s shirts and underclothing.
  12. Madras – This material is a plaid or check-patterned lightweight cotton fabric that originated from India. Traditionally hand-woven, its patterns are applied with vegetable dyes that bleed through the cloth resulting in soft, muted colours. It is commonly used to make women’s clothing and men’s shirts.
  13. Chintz – Classic fabrics that were originally made from printed calico. It has a glazed finish though some chintz materials come unglazed. It is multicoloured with bold flower and foliage patterns and is mainly used for upholstery and home furnishings.
  14. Egyptian cotton – Finer, softer, and longer-lasting than regular cotton fabrics. It is also more expensive than most cotton cloths because its finer yarns mean a higher thread count and its weave is significantly stronger.
  15. Percale – The tight cotton weave typical of Percale materials makes it a desirable material for bed linen. It is an elegant cotton fabric that never loses its smoothness and therefore requires no ironing.
  16. Khadi – Handspun and hand-woven cotton cloth that originates from Asia.
  17. Monks cloth – This is a traditional cloth made from pure 100% cotton yarn.
  18. Seersucker – This is a lightweight fabric made from pure cotton fibres. It features a crinkled look because it is woven in a way that cotton yarns bunch together to give a puckered appearance. It is a non-iron fabric.
  19. Canvas – Strong, rugged, and durable, canvas material is a cloth woven with coarse cotton yarn. It is used for cushions, slipcovers, seats, footwear, and drop cloths.
  20. Chenille – A fuzzy form of cotton fabric that has a pile protruding around it, named after the French word for caterpillar. It comes in heavyweight, used for upholstery and lightweight, ideal for robes and bedcovers.
  21. Voile – Voile is a sheer fabric that’s traditionally made from 100% cotton.  It is soft to the touch and lightweight and is typically used in soft furnishing and dressmaking.

Cotton materials like Swiss dot, duck cotton, voile, chintz and cotton gabardine are still popular while cloths like long cloth, muslin, Dimity, and Khadi are no longer popularly sought.

Effect of Technology on Cotton Fabrics

Today, some of these fabrics are no more while others are becoming less popular because of new-age substitutes; the influence of technology. Because of its effect on the textile industry, there is now a wide variety of types, grades, and designs of fabrics, and both synthetic and natural fibre blends have been developed to satisfy consumer tastes and affordability.

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