Fall/Winter Season
New S&S Ties
& Pocket Squares |
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Seaward & Stearn
New Ties & Squares
A few of our many S&S Squares:
And Hundreds of S&S Ties:
... and what would our
Newsletter
be without at least a few socks & some
cashmere???
MEN'S
SOCKS
Marcoliani ExtraFine Merino
Fancy Astratto Cubes
Marcoliani Fine Cotton Lisle
Fancy Block Stripe
Plain Casual Socks
in Mid-calf Soft Cotton
Pantherella Mid-Calf Boxes
WOMEN'S
SOCKS
Women's Merino Fashion Stripe
In
Knee-high & Over-the-Knee
Women's Merino Sassy Knee-high
Multi-Stripe
Women's Plain Merino Knee-highs
Cashmere Harlequin Knee-High
CASHMERE
FOR
ALL
Alex Begg of Scotland
A Word About
Luxury Gift Selection
We know how difficult and
time-consuming it can be to select the right
gifts
from our vast range of fine luxury clothing
and accessories. It doesn't have to be such.
We know our wares from top to bottom. Let us
help ...
How? On every page of CustomShirt1.com,
you'll see a link to our Gift Center where
you'll find a very short questionnaire to
fill out for each intended gift recipient.
We'll take it from there, assembling unique
treasure boxes for your loved ones and
sending them to you by email for your
approval or revision.
GREAT
GIFT IDEA:
Kabbaz-Kelly Design-Your-Own Cashmere & Silk
Scarf
ANOTHER GREAT
GIFT IDEA:
Zimmerli for Women Silky Elegance Wool & Silk
Limited Edition
We'll even
take care of the wrapping! When you remove
your presents from their outer package,
they'll be all ready to hand out. Well ...
almost. You'll have to sign the gift card.
GREAT
GIFT IDEA:
Zimmerli for Women Cotton Lace
"Belle du
Jour"
Intimates
Click
here and put us to work on your list!
Letters to the
Editor
A Treatise on Custom Clothing
Hello Alex,
I have read both parts 2 & 3 of your treatise
on custom made shirts.
Even though I may not be able to afford them,
I know that your firm takes excellent pride
in the quality of the work you do!
So much of
clothing is made overseas and manufactured
for literally pennies on the dollar and is
sold here as well as labeled as "luxury" for
very high prices. Just looking at the
garments you can see the "cheapness" of the
quality. The consumer buys these
way-overpriced goods, wears them, and in about
6 months or so the garments are useless
just by regular wearing and washing. This is
truly a
"throw-away society"! All that hard earned
money wasted! It is not just clothing, it is
everything we buy.
Then we read that the
production methods in these other countries
are called into question because of recalls
from injuries and use of toxic chemicals and
heavy metals like lead and so forth.
I look forward for more articles.
Regards,
Bill B.
Ed.'s Note: Thank you, Bill. One of the
things we have
done during the past 15 years is to select
only fabrics which are made to OKEO TEX
Standard 100. This is the new Eurpoean
textile manufacturing standard which mandates
"green" methods throughout the process.
Previously, such chemicals as formaldehyde
were used in the finishing of cotton
textiles. Thankfully, the 100 standard was
voluntarily accepted by our best mills. As an
added benefit, our fabric rooms no longer
smell like embalming rooms!
In Our
Upcoming Issues ...
Caveat Emptor
Cheap
High-Count
Chinese-woven Shirtings
100% Organic Cotton Naturally Dyed
Socks!
A Special Treat from Italy's Bresciani Socks
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Greetings!
Thank you, yet again, to all who wrote in to me
about last
issue's Part III of A Treatise on
Custom-Made Clothing. Many asked whether
I could take a break from the shirt
ingredients and, instead, give an overview of
fabric selection. This issue covers
that subject in depth
If you missed the previous Parts I through
III, it would be a good idea to read them
first. They are linked here:
Again, take me to task: Write back to me with
your
thoughts, positive or not. I'll respond to
them (anonymously)
in our upcoming issues. Our new Letters to the
Editor section appears at the bottom of the
left column.
Most of our new 2008/2009
Fall/Winter and Holiday items are now in
stock. This
issue (see over there on the left) features
some of the new Seaward & Stearn neckties and
pocket squares from London. Look for
the new Zimmerli Pajamas next week.
Preliminary (rough)
advance photos are available on our What's
New page.
Best regards,
Alex Kabbaz
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Caveat Emptor
A Treatise on Custom-Made Clothing . . . Part IV |
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by
Alexander S.
Kabbaz, Master Shirtmaker
Copyright � 2003-2008 Alexander S. Kabbaz, All
Rights
Reserved
Shirtings, to set the definitions
correctly at the outset, are the fabrics from
which shirts, blouses, and pajamas are made.
Shirtings are not shirts.
Disclaimer: I am a
shirtmaker, not a textile engineer. The
following article is written from my years of
experience as such and is as accurate as
research, practical experience, rumor,
innuendo, bravado, and arguing with vendors
can make it.
Questions constantly arise involving the
differences amongst broadcloths, poplins,
oxfords, twills, basket weaves, voiles,
gabardines, dobbies, jacquards, and other
lesser-known types of shirtings. In this
article I shall attempt to explain what each
type is, the differences between it an other
types, and in some cases the
advantages/disadvantages of each type.
You cannot understand fabric types and
quality without a basic knowledge of the
manner in which cloth is woven. Fabric is
made of yarns which run in two directions. In
the length, the yarns are known as the
warp. The warp is made by winding up
thousands of yarns on a large metal roll
called a warp beam. These yarns are then
threaded into the loom. The other
yarns run across the fabric and are known as
the weft. These yarns are actually
(usually) one long yarn on a cone which is
fed in sideways through the warp yarns. The
photo shows the basics:
Back in the old days weaving was a much more
mechanical process than it is today. The
shuttle of old was a wooden device
which had points on both ends and a spool of
yarn in the middle. It literally flew back
and forth across the loom going in-between
the warp yarns. The faster it traveled, the
greater the strain on the yarn coming off the
spool. If it ran too fast, or came to a weak
spot in the yarn, the yarn would break. The
loom would have to be stopped, the broken end
tied (by hand) back to the yarn it broke
from, and the loom restarted. Practical
experience netted the realization that about
the smallest yarns which could withstand this
process were the 120's ... and then only if
the loom was run quite slowly.
In the last quarter century or so, some
smart inventor said, "Why can't I shoot this
yarn through on a fine jet of high-speed
air?" And so the 'air shuttle' was born. Now
that the yarns would no longer be broken by
the friction of the shuttle, the weavers
could use finer ones. Hence the birth of the
2x2 140's, the 160's, the 170's, 180's,
200's, and 240's. But more about the quality
differences later. Now that you know the
basics of cloth weaving we can delve into the
more popular types of shirt fabric which
result from the weaving process. Here's a
list of the common ones, each of which will
be discussed in greater detail below:
- Broadcloth and Poplin
- Oxford, Pinpoint, and Basketweave
- Twill, Gabardine, Cavalry and
Herringbone
- End-on-End
- Voile and its cousin, Zendaline
- Dobby & Jacquard
- Satin
Before discussing the specific types of
cloth, there are four factors which influence
all of the types. These factors are:
- Ply
- Count of the Cloth
- Yarn Number
PLY
Here is where the least scrupulous
manufacturers often misuse technical terms to
mislead unknowledgeable consumers. Yarns used
to make cloth are spun from raw cotton as
illustrated above. Once spun, the yarn can
then be used directly to weave fabric. Or,
for higher quality fabrics, yarns can be
twisted together into a yarn made of two
yarns. This is known as Two-Ply Yarn. The
twisted Two-Ply yarn resists the normal
tendency of yarn to 'pill'. Therefore,
fabrics woven of this Two-Ply yarn will have
a much greater durability and longevity than
fabrics woven of "Singles", or yarns which
have not been plied. Where the unscrupulous
prey on the unsuspecting is by using a
Two-Ply yarn in one direction of the cloth
and a Single Yarn in the other direction and
calling it "Two-Ply". True high quality cloth
uses Two-Ply yarns in both the Warp and Weft
directions and is known as 2x2.
COUNT OF THE CLOTH
Confusion often reigns between the "Thread
Count" and the "Yarn Number". The improperly
named "Thread Count", which is correctly
termed "Yarn Count", consists of the number
of yarns-per-inch in the Warp and the number
of yarns-per-inch in the Weft. This
determines whether the cloth is loosely or
tightly woven. Common high-quality
broadcloths have a Count of 144 x 76, or 144
Warp (lengthwise) Yarns per inch and 76 Weft
(crosswise) Yarns per inch. Logically, the
fewer the yarns-per-inch, the more space
there will be between the yarns and the
sheerer the resulting cloth.
YARN NUMBER
This is the number most commonly bandied
about ... and usually confused with Thread
Count. For cottons, using the most commonly
accepted numbering system, yarn numbers run
from 24's (thickest and coarsest) to 240's
(thinnest and finest). Here, as a difficult
to view comparison, is a 100's right next to
a 200's. If you look carefully, you can see
the thickness of the red plaid 100's yarns on
the left is almost double that of the wine
striped 200's on the right. The thinner yarns
can be spun only from the thinnest,
smoothest, longest cotton fibers, known in
the trade as E.L.S. or Extra Long Staple. It
is the rarest and most expensive cotton grown
in the world, comprising in total well under
1% of all the cotton produced. Naturally, the
thinner the yarn the softer and more supple
the resulting cloth.
OK. Tired of the Science? Good. Me, too.
Let's get on to the Types of Shirtings.
BROADCLOTH or POPLIN (or Popline
fr.)
Ha! Thought you were finally going to
find out the difference, eh? Well, you're
not. Why? Because for all practical purposes,
Broadcloth and Poplin are exactly the same
thing. Historically, there had been one
slight difference which is all but ignored
today. That difference would have been that
some poplins had a slightly larger filling,
or weft, yarn than broadcloths resulting in a
slightly more pronounced 'ridge' effect
crosswise on the cloth.
That out of the way, just what is a
broadcloth or poplin? Quite simply, it is a
Plain Weave. What is meant by a plain weave
is that each weft yarn passes over one warp
yarn, under one warp yarn, over one warp
yarn, and so on until it reaches the other
side of the cloth. It then returns to the
starting side in exactly the same sequence,
merely alternating by one the warp yarns
which it goes under - over - under. This
diagram illustrates the construction
vividly:
Here is the actual cloth. You can easily see
the simple over-under-over repetition:
This results in a smooth, strong cloth which
is durable, shrinkage resistant, and quite
dimensionally stable. In other words, it will
last a long time and not tend to warp or bend
as time passes. It is the most common and
widely used of all the shirtings and
available in qualities from 30's singles to
200's 2x2. Higher qualities range upwards of
100's 2x2.
PINPOINT, OXFORD, & BASKET WEAVE
Pinpoint is a very simple type of Oxford - of
which there are dozens - almost a broadcloth
in nature. The only usual difference between
broadcloth and
pinpoint, which is woven of broadcloth type
yarns, is that the weft thread passes over
two closely-spaced warp yarns before passing
under two and then repeating.
Oxford, named for Oxford University by the
Scottish mill which first wove it, is a
basket weave. These range from simple, plain
Oxfords, usually woven - except in the case
of white - from two different colored yarns
to the most intricate weavin imaginable.
In most instances, the second color of yarn
is white. Basket weaves are simple weaves.
What differentiates them from the plain weave
is that each warp and/or weft yarn passes
over and under multiple yarns. These
multiples generally range from two to four
and can create quite an exciting array of
fabrics. Here is demonstrated the basic
weaving pattern for a 2x1 and 2x2 Basket
Weave. Do not confuse these denominations
with ply - they signify how many yarns are
being passed over and under:
On the right is the weaving diagram; the left
an illustration of the yarns. The upper
diagrams illustrate the 2x1 construction
where one weft (crosswise) yarn passes over
and under two warp (lengthwise) yarns;
alternating which two to pass over or under
in each succeeding row. The lower diagram
shows the 2x2 construction where two weft
(crosswise) yarns pass over and under two
warp (lengthwise) yarns; again alternating
which two to pass over or under in each
succeeding row.
Here is an illustration in actual cloth of a
few Oxford & Basket Weave constructions:
The first is a 2x2 (ply) 140's Thomas Mason
Royal Oxford which is a very fancy
construction, indescribable in lay terms but
consisting of four yarns in each direction.
Some pass over two yarns , others over four.
The center cloth is a 4x4 weave, 2x2 ply 80's
Oltolina Oxford called Duke. The bottom
fabric is a white basket weave, so complex it
would require a microscope to unravel.
Suffice it to say that there exists a huge
array of different Oxford constructions, all
of which are characterized by the basket
weave construction and most of which are made
from at least two different colors of yarn.
One overarching characteristic of most of the
fancier Oxfords, or basket weaves, is that
their irregularity tends to decrease their
durability. As will be noted below in the
Satin description, the more warp or weft
yarns its crosswise partner passes over, the
more chance there is that the untethered,
"floating" yarn may catch, or snag, on an
external sharp protrusion such as a splinter
or broken fingernail.
TWILL: GABARDINE, CAVALRY, &
HERRINGBONE
Yup. They're all the same. Twill is the weave
type; Gabardine, Cavalry, and Herringbone
just various manifestations thereof. A Twill
is characterized by the weft (crosswise)
yarns passing over multiple warp yarns and
then under one warp yarn. The succeeding row
does the same, but begins one warp yarn
later, etc. This creates a pronounced
diagonal rib effect as is seen in this
weaving diagram:
Here are a few simple examples of actual
twills of an equilateral and regular weave
construction. The topmost is a Hounds tooth
patterned twill. Next follows a so-called
Tick weave in a twill construction. Below
that is a very fine 2x2 170's twill cloth
from Alumo. The bottommost is a very heavy
Cavalry twill. In all twills, the diagonal
ribs are termed 'wales':
Two important characteristics of twills are
that they are the most durable of cloths and
they are the least likely to soil - but the
hardest to clean once they do.
Gabardine Twill is also a regular and
equilateral weave characterized by a very
hard surface finish and a very high yarn
count. A most popular and common twill is the
Herringbone, so named for its likeness to the
backbone of the fish of the same name. It
also utilizes a regular and equilateral twill
construction - but the construction reverses
direction every certain number of yarns in
order that the diagonal ribs change direction
by ninety degrees. Here is the weaving
diagram and a magnified example of a
herringbone cloth:
and an example of the actual fabric, a 2x2
ply 100's from Thomas Mason:
END-ON-END (or fil-a-fil
fr.)
The variety of available end-on-end cloths is
probably immeasurable. In the simplest terms,
end-on-end is a plain weave just like a
broadcloth. It is characterized by the
interspersion of colored yarns with other
colored yarns. Though one of the colors is
most frequently white, a great diversity of
end-on-ends have arisen in recent years. The
simplest and most common - the medium blue
broadcloth end-on-end often associated with
the white collar & cuff style - is
constructed from a warp of alternating white
and blue yarns and a weft of white yarns.
This yields the familiar 'crosshatched'
appearance. Though most end-on-ends which
don't use white as one of the colors use
lighter and darker shades of the same color,
for example, sky and royal, I have seen some
really strange combinations in recent times -
blue & purple with magenta & fuscia, for
example - which when finally made up yielded
some awesome fabrics.
What is usually not realized about
end-on-ends is that they are not always woven
of the standard broadcloth yarns. A few years
back, voile end-on-ends were quite popular as
well. For the differences, see the Voile
section below. Here are a few for comparison.
The first is the standard, popular blue
fabric seen in every men's store everywhere.
The second and third are examples, a red and
a blue, of voile-weight End-on-Ends. Finally
the bottom graphic is the highest quality
made, Albini's D&J Anderson 200's End-on-End
woven of two colors of blue yarn.
VOILE ... and its cousin, Zendaline
Voile is a most popular Summer-weight fabric
among the cognoscenti. As broadcloth, voile
is a plain weave. The difference in this
cloth lies in the manner of spinning the
yarn. Voile yarns are spun to an extremely
high twist. This high twist causes the yarns
to bulk up in a process called creping. It is
illustrated here with a cotton twine. The top
shows the twine in its natural, relaxed
position, similar to a broadcloth yarn. The
bottom demonstrates what happens when the
twine is twisted to the point where it
doubles over upon itself - exactly like a
voile yarn:
The fact that the yarns are 'bulked up'
permits the use of fewer of them per square
inch (a lower yarn count). This corresponding
decrease in the quantity of fiber is the
property which makes voiles semi-sheer and
extremely breathable, for what they have
actually become is quite porous.
Additionally, this minimal yarn combined with
a soft, high twist makes for an extremely
soft and supple fabric.
Here is an example of a 2x2 140's 'French
Striated' Voile from the looms of Italy's
S.I.C.Tessuti:
A hybrid of Voile is known as Zendaline.
Woven of the high-twist voile yarns in the
weft (crosswise), the Zendaline warp is made
from Broadcloth yarns. The resulting cloth,
for many technical reasons, exhibits only the
best features of both yarns. Zendaline has an
extremely high sheen reminiscent of the
finest broadcloths, but retains the soft hand
of the Voiles. Among the upper crust of
bespoke shirt wearers, Zendaline is one of
the 'must haves' in every wardrobe.
DOBBY & JACQUARD
I am treating Dobbies and Jacquards together
because they are both methods of achieving
the same goal - that of creating a design on
cloth without using colors to do so. Their
most obvious difference lies in the size of
the design they can produce. Dobby looms are
capable of producing small, uncomplicated
designs whereas Jacquard looms can create the
most complex designs of any size desired.
The manner in which the weft thread is
inserted through the warp threads naturally
varies with the type of cloth being woven. In
simple cloths such as those described above,
the warp yarns pass through heddles
which, together, comprise what is called a
harness. In the simplest loom, one
designed
for making only Plain Weave cloths, there are
two harnesses. Half of the warp yarns (#'s
1,3,5,7,9 and so on) are passed through the
heddles of one harness. The other half of the
yarns (#'s 2,4,6,8 and so on) are passed
through the heddles of the other harness.
When the first harness is lifted up and the
second pushed down, the weft thread is then
shot through the resulting triangle of space.
The harnesses then reverse and the weft
thread is shot through again, and so on.
Note the triangle on this simple hand loom
where the weft thread passes through as one
harness sheds half of the warp upward while
the other harness sheds the other half of the
warp downward:
The Dobby loom, or technique, is a manner of
controlling up to 32 different harnesses
which permits the degree of variation
necessary to produce simple designs. Here are
two examples. The first, or uppermost, is a
common satin stripe, in this case adorning a
blue voile solid. The second example is a
truly rare piece, one woven by David and John
Andersen in Scotland during the first half of
the 20th Century. It is called 'Clocks':
The Jacquard Loom, invented in 1801 by Joseph
Marie Jacquard, is a horse of an entirely
different color! There are no heddles or
harnesses. Instead, there are thousands of
fine steel wires suspended from above, the
end of each consisting of an eye through
which one ... just one ... warp yarn is
passed. Then, through the use of an extremely
complex series of punch cards, each fine
steel wire is individually raised and lowered
as the weft thread passes through resulting
in even the most complex of repeating
designs. Here is an example in
White-on-White:
Most modern shirtings do not feature designs
so complex as to necessitate the use of a
Jacquard loom. The small, repeating designs
featured in the majority of White-on-Whites,
Tone-on-Tones, and simple satin stripes or
checks are quite easily accomplished with the
32 harnesses of the Dobby system.
Hold on ... we're almost at the end! Just one
more cloth:
SATIN
Though a rarity in cotton shirtings these
days, many silk shirts on today's store
shelves are of the satin variety. Similarly,
satin components are used in the construction
of garments such as the tuxedo. Satins are
the most delicate and least impervious to
snagging of all fabrics. The reason for this
is a magnification of the oxford concept of
'floating' the warp or the weft to permit the
natural luster of mercerized thread to show.
Satin fabrics, as illustrated in the
following diagram, feature warp or weft yarns
floating out above the surface for a distance
ranging anywhere from 4 to 16 crosswise
yarns! As is obvious, the opportunity for
snagging one of these floating yarns is
widespread ... though in proper circumstance,
the use of satin can be quite attractive:
Though that concludes the description of the
common shirting constructions, no such
treatise would be complete without a brief
paragraph or two on a couple of the other
factors which influence the quality of
fabrics.
THE FINISHING
Although you now know the basics of
constructing the cloth, cloth is not ready
for the needle until it is "finished". After
weaving, fabric then goes through one or all
of a variety of 'finishing' processes. These
include dying, sizing, sanforization, and
pre-shrinking to name just a few common ones.
Each of these processes has a direct effect
not only upon the appearance of the cloth,
but on its performance characteristics as
well.
Interesting Sidebar - You've probably heard
of the 47 common varieties of Scotch whiskey.
One of the primary factors in the variety
lies in the water used in the fermenting
process. Just as with Scotch, water is one of the
key components in many of the fabric
finishing processes. Not so strangely, many
of the fabrics used to be finished in
Scotland. Variety in fabric finished was
obtained, in part, by the weaver's selection
of which of those 47 waters was to be used.
Now, thanks to population increases and
pollution, that wide variety of waters is no
longer available. Due to this, many of the
characteristics of, for example, the "clocks"
example above, can no longer be repeated.
LONGEVITY
I have a few yards of some 200's x 240's
woven for me in the 1990's. In order to do
so, the mill had to run the loom at a rate of
35 meters per day. Even so, there were still
some broken weft yarns and the requisite
knots therein. And that was the fastest they
could be run. Loom speed today is measured in
the tens of thousands of yards per loom per
day. The better shirtings (Italian, Swiss -
best mills) are made on looms running from
1000 to 3000 meters daily. And this is what
happens: The faster you run the loom, the
greater the inherent tension in the yarns of
the resulting fabric. On today's super
high-speed looms, microscopic breaks in the
yarns are caused. These do not become evident
until the tension begins to really relax.
This happens when the fabric is wet (in the
laundry). As the number of launderings
increases, those fabrics begin to degrade
rapidly. Fabrics woven on the slower looms -
in other words those without the high tension
breakage - do not begin to degrade anywhere
near as rapidly.
This is why I can show you a 2x2 170's shirt
made in the mid-1980's and laundered more
than 200 times which is perfectly serviceable
while a new shirt made of high-speed woven
fabric is virtual garbage after 25
washes.
Hence, it is not merely the construction
details of the weaving of a particular cloth
which influence its appearance, its hand, and
its serviceability. There are other factors,
two of which I have just briefly touched the
surface of, which demand consideration in
your selection of that next shirt ... but
those are topics for another day. Thanks for
slogging through.
Next Issues: Coming in Parts V, VI, and
V...
Oft-Asked Shirtmaking Questions and
(Opinionated)
Answers including:
- Split-Yoke vs. One-Piece Yoke
- Hand Sewing vs. Machine Sewing
- Selecting Your (Mother-of-Pearl) Buttons
- Darts: Bespoke Hallmark or Shortcut?
- Fused vs. Traditional Collar
Construction
- The Ethical Considerations of Pricing
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