The Best Suit Materials
A suit is a costume usually made of one material. For men, it's a jacket, a waistcoat (optional) and trousers, and for women, a jacket, skirt and blouse. The man's suit traces its origins back to the habit a la francaise of the 18th century, which was a coat, waistcoat and breeches, though they weren't always of the same fabric or color. Tailored suits for women came around in the 1880s, made for walking and office work. The best materials for suits are easy to care for, don't wrinkle much, and hang well. Does this Spark an idea?
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Wool
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The most prevalent fabric for men's suits is wool. Wool is made from the fleece of sheep or goats and was and is used in day wear, morning suits and formal evening wear, and in all seasons. Wool is durable and resists wrinkling. It's graded, then sorted by the length and quality of the fibers. Shorter fibers are made into woolen yarns and longer, lustrous fibers into worsted yarns. The varieties of fabric that wool can be spun into makes it perfect for suits. Wool can be coarse homespun, cashmere, a fine, soft wool, batiste, an extremely fine, light fabric, tweed, a twilled woolen cloth that originated in southern Scotland, or flannel, a warm, soft fabric of plain or twill weave.
Linen
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Linen has been woven from flax since around 3,000 B.C. The flax fiber is strong and has good spinning qualities. The processing of linen has remained much the same since the time it was first processed. The flax plants are pulled by hand, bundled up and dried. Then, they are combed to remove the seed capsules and soaked in water to separate the fibers from the heard center. The fibers are then beaten, washed and dressed, then spun and woven. Duck, a firmly woven linen, is good for suits, as is moygashel, a very sturdy Irish linen.
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Silk
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Silk is used mostly in formal evening suits. Its a filament taken from the cocoon of the Bombyx silk moth and may have been spun as far back as 8,000 years ago in China. The Empress Hsi Ling Shih is credited with the technique for raising silkworms and unraveling the silk from their cocoons. She's also credited with inventing the loom. Pongee and shantung silk are used for suits. Pongee and shantung are considered raw silks, which means they were made from short fibers or waste silk.
Cotton
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Cotton, like linen, is a plant fiber. The name is from the Arabic "qutun," and it's the soft white fluff that protects the seeds of the cotton plant, which is a member of the Mallow family. Like linen, it has been woven since around 3,000 B.C. Good types of cotton for suits are chino, which is used for summer suits, corduroy, which is made with an extra filling yarn, crepe, gabardine, jersey and seersucker, whose unique texture is made by alternating slack and tight yarns in the warp.
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References
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