Velour, occasionally velours, is a plush, knitted fabric or textile similar to velvet or velveteen. It can be made from polyester, spandex, or cotton, or a cotton-polyester blend. [1] Velour is used in a wide variety of applications, including clothing and upholstery. [2] Velour typically has a medium-length pile, shorter than velvet but longer than velveteen. [3]
Velour originated in France, although it is unclear who first created it. Velour is a knitted fabric, which makes it stretchy (unlike velvet and velveteen, which are woven). Velour is soft, allows freedom of movement, and is used for activewear and loungewear. [4] Historically, velour was cheaper than velvet and was thus often used for home furnishings and decor which would take heavy wear and tear. However, modern manufacturing techniques make velvet affordable for home furnishings. [5] The low cost of velour allows for its use by people of all economic classes. [6]
In the 1970s, velour gained popularity through clothing trends such as athleisure tracksuits. [7] [8]
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, and doctor's gowns.
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses. Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue.
Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.
Velvet is a type of woven fabric with a dense, even pile that gives it a distinctive soft feel. Historically, velvet was typically made from silk. Today, velvet can be made from silk, linen, cotton, wool, synthetic fibers, silk-cotton blends, or synthetic-natural fiber blends.
Woven fabric is any textile formed by weaving. Woven fabrics are often created on a loom, and made of many threads woven on a warp and a weft. Technically, a woven fabric is any fabric made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to one another. Woven fabrics can be made of natural fibers, synthetic fibers, or a mixture of both, such as cotton and polyester.
Microfibre is synthetic fibre finer than one denier or decitex/thread, having a diameter of less than ten micrometers.
A polo shirt, tennis shirt, golf shirt, or chukker shirt is a form of shirt with a collar. Polo shirts are usually short sleeved but can be long; they were used by polo players originally in India in 1859 and in Great Britain during the 1920s.
A bathrobe, also known as a housecoat or a dressing gown, is a loose-fitting outer garment worn by people, often after washing the body or around a pool. A bathrobe is considered to be very informal clothing, and is not worn with everyday clothes.
A tracksuit is an article of clothing consisting of two parts: trousers and a jacket usually with a front zipper. It was originally intended for use in sports, mainly for athletes to wear over competition clothing and to take off before competition. In modern times, it has become commonly worn in other contexts. The tracksuit was one of the earliest uses of synthetic fibers in sportswear.
Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer (polyacrylonitrile) with an average molecular weight of ~100,000, about 1900 monomer units. For a fiber to be called "acrylic" in the US, the polymer must contain at least 85% acrylonitrile monomer. Typical comonomers are vinyl acetate or methyl acrylate. DuPont created the first acrylic fibers in 1941 and trademarked them under the name Orlon. It was first developed in the mid-1940s but was not produced in large quantities until the 1950s. Strong and warm, acrylic fiber is often used for sweaters and tracksuits and as linings for boots and gloves, as well as in furnishing fabrics and carpets. It is manufactured as a filament, then cut into short staple lengths similar to wool hairs, and spun into yarn.
Velveteen is a type of woven fabric with a dense, even, short pile. It has less sheen than velvet because the pile in velveteen is cut from weft threads, while that of velvet is cut from warp threads. Velveteen also has a shorter pile than velvet and is stiffer, with less drape, and is usually made of cotton or a cotton-silk blend.
Chiffon (French:[ʃi.fɔ̃];, shif-ON, from the French word chiffe which means "cloth or rag"; is a lightweight, balanced plain-woven sheer fabric, or gauze, like gossamer, woven of alternate S- and Z-twist crepe yarns. Crepe yarn tends to have a tighter twist than standard yarns. The twist in the crepe yarns puckers the fabric slightly in both directions after weaving, giving it some stretch and a slightly rough feel.
Terrycloth, terry cloth, terry cotton, terry towelling, terry, terry towel, Turkish towelling (formerly), or simply towelling is a fabric woven with many protruding loops of thread which can absorb large amounts of water. It can be manufactured by weaving or knitting. Terrycloth is woven on special looms that have two beams of longitudinal warp through which the filler or weft is fired laterally.
Sportswear or activewear is athletic clothing, including footwear, worn for sports activity or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons.
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns it into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.
Primarily, nap is the raised (fuzzy) surface on certain kinds of cloth, such as velvet or moleskin. Nap can refer additionally to other surfaces that look like the surface of a napped cloth, such as the surface of a felt or beaver hat.
Many materials have been used to make garments throughout history. Grasses, furs and much more complex and exotic materials have been used. Cultures like the Arctic Circle, make their wardrobes out of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Different cultures have added cloth to leather and skins as a way to replace real leather. A wide range of fibers, including natural, cellulose, and synthetic fibers, can be used to weave or knit cloth. From natural fibers like cotton and silk to synthetic ones like polyester and nylon, most certainly reflects culture.
Sweatpants are a casual variety of soft trousers intended for comfort or athletic purposes, although they are now worn in many different situations. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa they are known as tracksuit bottoms or trackies. In Australia and New Zealand, they are also commonly known as trackpants, tracky daks or joggers. They are also referred to as jogging pants in Canada.
In sewing, elastic is a notion which is sold in narrow strips and generally serves to increase the ability of garment to stretch, either to accommodate movement or to make the garment suitable for wearers of many different physical sizes. Elastic comes in four forms of construction, each with costs and benefits. The component which performs the actual stretching is made of either rubber or a synthetic material such as spandex; this stretching component is then covered with polyester, cotton, nylon, or a combination of these or other fibers which allow it to be attached to clothing. High-quality elastic is able to be stretched to twice its original length and then return to its unflexed state without showing appreciable wear.
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