Pinpoint is a lighter, smoother, sporty and durable. Pinpoint is a fine cloth known for its subtle texture and a custom dress shirt made with Pinpoint is lighter than a traditional Oxford. We have Pinpoint fabric starting with a 100% Cotton or two ply Poplin all the way up to Egyptian Cotton. The luster and super fine texture of poplin nicely complements the comfort and durability of Oxford.more fabrics...
A fine, tightly woven fabric in a plain or twill weaves with a slight horizontal rib. Broadcloth is breathable, comfortable, soft, versatile, finally ribbed and has a very smooth finish and does not have any patterns in the material. The imperial yarns are actually twisted together for durability before the fabric is woven. Suitable for any style and at an incredible price! A tightly woven, lustrous cotton cloth with fine embedded crosswise ribs. Broadcloth is the same quality and has the same weight as Pinpoint, but has a smoother finish. It resembles poplin but has a finer rib and is used extensively in fine shirts. Broadcloth is fabulous looking, comfortable, ultra fine and soft to touch and is an absolute winner for a Custom Dress Shirt.more fabrics...
Royal Oxford cloth is a lustrous, textured, regal and soft elevated woven pattern. Oxford cottons have a soft texture and a "basketweave" appearance. It is a heavier cloth which gives it good durability. An Oxford dress shirt can be worn in both formal and casual situations. Royal Oxford originated in England in the late 19th Century and is known for its exceptional texture, softness and luster. This superior subtle basket weave Oxford cloth is woven of ultra-fine 80s and 100s yarns. We offer Oxford shirts in both Cotton/Poly mix and 100% Cotton.more fabrics...
Twill fabric is a very lightweight fabric, has diagonal ribs, high color luster, enhanced depth of color and is very smooth to the touch, it is lighter weight than Oxford or Broadcloth. Twill is suitable for casual dress shirts or formal dress shirts. Gabardine, serge, and denim are all examples of twill fabrics.more fabrics...
It is a broken twill weave created by alternating the diagonal pattern within the cloth. The reverse twill, at intervals, produces a zigzag effect. An arrowhead pattern characterized by a balanced zigzag effect produced by first having the rib run to the right and then to the left for an equal number of threads. It was named after the skeleton of the herring fish, as this is what the fiber pattern resembles. The yarns of herringbone are usually irregular, twisted and uneven. Shirts made with Herringbone Broadcloth fabric are considered fancier than those in the Oxford family of fabric. A Herringbone Broadcloth fabric is heavier than Pinpoint and Oxford. In the photo of the fabric, notice how tight the ribbed effect is. If the ribbed effect is very tight, the heavier the cloth will be.more fabrics...
The interesting subtle texture is created by alternating colored threads, usually a dominant color interwoven with white. End on end was first invented by the French (fil-à-fil), a fabric in which white thread is interwoven with a colored thread to produce a subtle textured effect. It retains the coolness and softness of plain two-fold “100s” while the intricacy of the weave gives a lift to any of our fabrics.more fabrics...
Jacquards are woven on a special loom to create a self-design in stripes, checks, geometric patterns and more. The jacquard loom produces elaborate cloth weaves that are very important for decorative fabrics. A weaving method invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard, which involves a machine attached to a loom that can electronically select and control individual warp threads. The Jacquard loom is used to create intricately woven fabrics, including brocade and damask. Silk, polyester and rayon are commonly used in the Jacquard process.more fabrics...
A fine, smooth, closely woven fabric in plain colors or in woven stripes; also known as silk shirting, It has a plain weave, Used for shirts and dresses. Mostly stripes are created with dyed warp yarn.more fabrics...
Checks mainly dyed solid colors or printed on a shirting fabric. Squares, windowpanes and plaids are types of checks.more fabrics...
A medium weight, plain weave fabric with a plaid or check pattern. End-uses include dresses, shirts, and curtains.
Also referred to as tartan cloth, plaid originated in the Scottish Highlands as a way to differentiate the different clans. Once denoting the garment itself, plaid is now used to refer to the specific crisscross designs and can be applied to a wide array of fabrics and uses.more fabrics...
The term tone on tone refers to a printed fabric that is made by combining different shades and tones of the same color. Tone on tone fabrics often appear to be solid when viewed from a distance, but their printed motifs become recognizable on closer inspection.
Tone on tone fabrics are popular with quilters, because they add subtle, visual texture to a quilt without the busy-ness of a multicolor print.more fabrics...
Egyptian cotton, a luxurious cotton grown along the Nile, is used to make products which are soft, durable and superior. The term Egyptian cotton is usually applied to the extra long staple cotton produced in Egypt and used by luxury and upmarket brands worldwide. Egyptian cottons are used to create bedding of all types from sheets to pillowcases to comforters. The long staple or long fiber of Egyptian-grown cotton means that there is more continuous fiber to use when creating threads or yarns. This yarn is smaller in diameter yet stronger than other cottons. Smaller yarn means that more threads per square inch can be use to create stronger fabric which is light in weight yet breathes well. The hand or feel of the sheets created from Egyptian grown cotton is a bit harder than other cottons when the bedding is new. However, with every single laundering, the cotton sheets from Egyptian fibers become softer and softer. Like a fine wine, age improves the Egyptian fiber cotton bedding and, unlike many products, you will prize your Egyptian fiber sheets of cotton more and more as they age and become soft and cuddly.
Named after the Pima Indians who cultivated this plant in the Southwestern United States, Pima cotton is similar to Egyptian cotton, as it has exceptionally strong, long, combed fibers, dyes well and has a silky soft hand.
A white vegetable fiber grown in warmer climates in many parts of the world, has been used to produce many types of fabric for hundreds of years. Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely used natural-fiber cloth in clothing today. Cotton fabric feels good against the skin regardless of the temperature or the humidity and is therefore in great demand by the consumer.
This fabric is made from the fibers of the flax plant, and when woven, this extremely cool and breathable material is stronger and more lustrous than cotton.
A manufactured fiber introduced in the early 1950s, and is second only to cotton in worldwide use. Polyester has high strength (although somewhat lower than nylon), excellent resiliency, and high abrasion resistance. Low absorbency allows the fiber to dry quickly. Condensation polymers combine to develop synthetic fibers that make this strong, quick-drying textile that does not wrinkle and holds its shape well.
A fabric made using a rib variation of the plain weave. The construction is characterized by having a slight ridge effect in one direction, usually the filling. Poplin used to be associated with casual clothing, but as the "world of work" has become more relaxed, this fabric has developed into a staple of men's wardrobes, being used frequently in casual trousers. Also called tabinet, this plain-woven fabric has a corded surface that runs selvage to selvage. Usually made from a silk warp with a weft of worsted yarn, but can also be made with wool, cotton, rayon, or any mixture.
Also referred to as thread, yarn is the basic component of all fabrics. Yarn can be composed of twisted natural or synthetic fibers, or a longer single fiber.
Staple yarns are bought and sold by the pound, not by length. Sizes (or numbers) are used to express a relation between the weight of the raw fiber of staple yarns and the yarn length. Hanks are standard skeins of yarn (comprised of strands), used to gauge fineness in the worsted or metric system. One hank measures 560 yards and the number of Hank’s in one-pound gauges relative fineness. For example: 40's quality yarn is actually 40 hanks which is 40 x 560 or 22,400 yards of yarn per pound--twice as "course" (less fine, smooth and dense) as 80's yarn which is 80 hanks or 80 x 560, equaling 44,800 yards of yarn per pound. The higher the hanks number, the finer the yarn.
Filament fibers weight is measured by a system called Denier. This measurement applies to all synthetic or manufactured fibers, and silk. This system works in reverse of the worsted or metric and the number increases with the coarseness of the yarns, so the lower the number, the finer the fiber. Numerically, a denier is the equivalent to the weight in grams of 9,000 meters of continuous filament fiber.
Making the right grade. Yarn counts and wool grades are easily confused with each other! Yarn counts will often include talk of ply while wool grades will often mention “worsted”. Yarn counts rarely climb above 80s and anything higher than 90 is impossible to spin whereas wool grades start at 80’s and 90’s.
Yarn count - that's the ply part, such as “singles”, “twists” and “ply”. A single is one fiber or thread. Two-ply is two fibers twisted together. Using two or more fibers make the thread or yard stronger and more durable.
High countrefers to fabric woven with a relatively high thread count, resulting in a dense, tight fabric. Thread count is the number of vertical (warp) and horizontal (weft) threads in 1 square inch of fabric. But the numbers can be deceptive — many manufacturers use a form of "thread count inflation," counting each double-ply strand of a thread twice.
Ply yarns are two or more strands twisted together. Yarn is twisted to provide strength and smoothness. Most yarns used in clothing are plied yarns. Twisting together yarns of different tensions or diameters make complex yarns such as boucle and ratine.
Twist is a term that applies to the number of turns and the direction that two yarns are turned during the manufacturing process. The yarn twist brings the fibers close together and makes them compact. It helps the fibers adhere to one another, increasing yarn strength.
The direction and amount of yarn twist helps determine appearance, performance, and durability of both yarns and the subsequent fabric or textile product. Single yarns may be twisted to the right (S twist) or to the left (Z twist). Generally, woolen and worsted yarns are S-twist, while cotton and flax yarns are typically Z-twist. Twist is generally expressed as turns per inch (tpi), turns per meter (tpm), or turns per centimeter (tpc).
High twist refers to yarn that are manufactured with a relatively high number of turns per inch. This may be done to increase the yarn strength or to give the fabric a crepe texture or hand.
Super - Modern high-tech machines spin wool finer than it’s ever been spun before! The super number or S number was set up as shorthand for describing the fineness of wool fibers not a quality ranking. The S-system (aka Worsted Count System) began in the 18th century. Finished yarn was coiled in 560-yard long loops called hanks. The S number indicated how many hanks could be made from a pound of wool.
Now the S-number refers to the fineness of the wool as measured in microns or one-millionth of a meter.For example:
SUPER NUMBER = MICRONS
100 = 18.5
110 = 18.0
130 = 17.5
160 = 15.5
But very high S-system number (Super 150, Super 200) wools don’t guarantee the best garments. The high S fabrics are more difficult to tailor. Italian Tailors say the wool is “nervous”. Since the material shifts so easily when it is sewn. Such wools wrinkle almost as much as linen. They are delicate and not as durable as less-fine wool. You can have good 15-micron wool or bad 15-micron wool. Ultimately it is the look and tailoring of the fabric that matter most, everything else is just a number.
Fineness is only one measure of quality. Length, and strength are also important. Length is vital since the longer the fiber the stronger the yarn that can be spun from it. Strength is critical because the yarn must be twisted very tightly to achieve a fine weave.