Taffeta is an exquisite, noble and expensive fabric

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Taffeta is a fabric that has effectively demonstrated the we alth and high social status of its owners over the centuries. From this hard and dense material, made in the past only by hand from natural silk, luxurious evening dresses with lush and voluminous silhouettes were sewn, and the interiors of rich mansions and palaces were also decorated with it.

Does taffeta still enjoy the same popularity today and has something changed in its composition and method of production? We will try to answer all the questions in this article.

Why is it called that?

The name "taffeta" comes from the Persian word tæfɨtə, meaning "fabric" or "woven". According to scientists, it was in Persia that taffeta was first produced - a fabric, the photo of which is presented below. However, the exact time and place of its appearance cannot be established today.

There is a hypothesis that this material was originally made in Persia from imported Chinese or Indian raw materials.

A bit of history

Thanks to the Great Silk Road, Persian taffeta - a beautiful and richly decorated fabric - first came to the southern regions of Europe, and then spread to other regions. From this material, very expensive at that time, they sewed suits and dresses for the court nobility. Byzantium became the first European state to establish its own production of taffeta. In the XIV century, the center for the manufacture of this fabric moved to Italy, and later the canvas spread to Spain, France, Germany and other states. Despite the fact that the fabric was no longer imported from Eastern countries, its price remained quite high, since both raw materials and dyes were imported and were very expensive.

Taffeta in Russia

This material came to our country, as historians suggest, in the 15th century from Byzantium. Taffeta is a fabric loved by both the Russian nobility and the clergy. Both secular dresses and caftans were sewn from it, as well as ceremonial vestments for religious ministers. In the 17th century, this material was still very expensive and was used only to decorate the outfits of the nobility, the higher clergy, and to make the Reiter banners of selected regiments.

Views

Taffeta is a plain weave fabric, thin and smooth, with a beautiful iridescent sheen. Previously, it was made only from natural silk, but today it is made from different materials with different properties. All existing types of taffeta can be divided into three groups:

• made from natural fibers (cotton andsilk);
• manufactured from synthetic materials (acetate and viscose);
• blended, the creation of which uses - in various proportions - both artificial and natural fibers.

The most expensive are natural fabrics, from which exquisite ladies' toilets are sewn, as they have excellent consumer qualities, such as environmental friendliness, wear resistance, hygroscopicity and hypoallergenicity. But modern fabric (taffeta) for curtains is usually artificial or mixed, which is due to the beautiful and sophisticated appearance at a fairly low price.

Taffeta is distinguished by the method of coloring:

• from pre-dyed yarn;
• colored "piece" after productionAlso, modern taffeta can have different textures: smooth, printed, crinkled.

Taffeta dyed after manufacture is softer and is used for linings and various interior decorations. Fabric woven from pre-dyed yarn is stiffer and is used for corsets, ball gowns and evening dresses.

Designers and upscale tailors distinguish, depending on the density, several types of this material. For example, grodenapple, lustring, taffeta-satin, pou-de-sua and others.

Pros and cons

As already mentioned, the main characteristics of the material depend on the raw material from which the fabric is made, but there are a number of properties, both positive and negative,characteristic of any kind of taffeta.

Pros include:

1. Beautiful fabric with a characteristic glossy sheen with overflow.

2. Holds its shape well and drapes well.

3. Long service life. With proper care, any fabric (drape taffeta is no exception) will last for decades.

4. High strength.

5. Hygroscopicity (the ability to repel water) due to the tight weave of the threads.

Like most materials, taffeta has its drawbacks:

• wrinkles a lot and can form creases and creases that are difficult to smooth out;
• shrinks when cutting;
• shrinks when washed in hot water.

How is it made?

If earlier taffeta (or, as it is also called, taffeta) was made using the method of the oldest weave known to mankind - linen (weft-warp), and only by hand, today special machines allow the production of this material on an industrial scale. For the production of such a fabric, dry, thin and dense twisted natural or artificial threads are used.