Crêpe (textile)

Crêpe, also spelt crepe or crape (from the Fr. crêpe[1]), is a silk, wool, or synthetic fiber fabric with a distinctively crisp, crimped appearance. The term crape typically refers to a form of the fabric associated specifically with mourning.[2] Crêpe is also historically called crespe or crisp.[3]

For other uses, see Crepe (disambiguation).

Woman's mourning bonnet in hard crape, c.1880

Types

Types (A to C)

Detail of an aerophane dress, c.1827

• Aerophane:

1. Crimped silk gauze with a crêpe texture.
2. An historic 19th century lightweight crêpe,[4] introduced in 1820,[5] and, as crepe aerophane in 1861.[6]

• Albert crêpe:

1. A superior-quality black silk mourning crêpe used since 1862.[5]
2. Plain-weave crêpe.
3. An English-made silk and cotton blend crêpe.[7]

• Alicienne: A furnishing fabric with alternating plain weave and crêpe stripes.[8]
• Alpaca crêpe: Rayon and acetate blend crêpe with a woollen texture, not necessarily made of alpaca yarn.[8]
• Altesse: A British plain-weave silk fabric with crêpe filling.[9]
• Arabian:

1. A British-made plain-weave cloth with figured crêpe designs
2. Piece-dyed silk crêpe embroidered with dots.[10]

• Armure See Georgian crêpe.
• Balanced crêpe: Crêpe woven with alternating S and Z twist yarns in both directions.[11]
• Balmoral crape: An 1895 English crape.[12]
• Balzerine: An 1889 narrow-striped silk grenadine overlaid with wider crêpe stripes. An earlier 1830s cotton/worsted fabric, spelled balzarine, is probably not crêpe.[12]
• Bark (or tree-bark) crêpe: A broad term describing rough crêpes with a bark texture.[13][14]
• Bauté satin: Warp-woven satin with a plain crêpe reverse.[15]
• Borada crape: A cheaper, economical version of mourning crape advertised in c.1887.[3]
• Bologna crêpe: Silk crêpe used for mourning, also known as valle cypre.[16]
• Canton crêpe: A soft silk crêpe with a pebbly surface originally associated with Canton in China, with bias ribs. Made in Britain, but exported to China, hence its name.[17]
• Caustic soda crêpe: Cotton treated with chemicals to create a crêpe-like texture, often in patterns.[18]
• Chiffon crêpe: Chiffon-weight crêpe.[19]
• Chijimi: Japanese crêpe.[19]

Chirimen

• Chirimen: Japanese raw silk crêpe widely used for kimonos.[20][21] When woven with a dot it is mon-chirimen.[22]
• Courtauld crape: 1890s mourning crape made by Courtaulds. An 1894 variation, called Courtauld's new silk crêpe, was exceptionally thin and soft.[6] Courtaulds monopolised the export market for English crapes and crêpes, meaning that the textiles known as crape anglaise were almost always manufactured by Courtaulds up until 1940.[3]
• Crêpe Algerian: A trade name for a printed pongee with a rough crêpe texture.[23]
• Crêpe anglaise: A French term for English mourning crapes in black and white.[6] The only true 'crape anglais' was considered that made by Courtaulds (see Courtauld crape) which was last made in 1940.[3]
• Crêpe Beatrice: Trade name for crêpe with a light warp stripe.[23]
• Crêpe berber: Trade name for a piece-dyed crepe-textured pongee.[24]
• Crêpe charmeuse: Lightweight silk satin with a grenadine warp and crêpe reverse.[24]
• Crêpe chenette: A tradename for a strong crêpe with a pebble texture.[24]
• Crêpe crêpe: Made with extra twists in the warp to create an extra-deep texture.[24]

Crepe de chine

• Crêpe de chine: A fine, lightweight silk, cotton, or worsted, with a plain weave and crêpe-twist filling.[24]
• Crêpe de chine travers: A ribbed crêpe de chine with heavier filling yarns introduced to the weave at regular intervals.[24]
• Crêpe de dante: Crêpe with silk and wool filling.[24]
• Crêpe de lahor: Cotton crêpe made in France.[24]
• Crêpe de laine: A sheer wool fabric plain-woven with hard twist for a slight crêpe effect.[24]
• Crêpe de santé: An undyed, closely woven, rough-textured wool-blend crêpe mixed with silk, linen or cotton, also called "health crepe"[24]
• Crêpe de Suisse: 1860 dress fabric.[6]
• Crêpe d'espagne: Open-weave fabric with a silk warp and wool filling.[24]
• Crêpe diana: Trade name for a cotton and silk blend crêpe.[24]
• Crêpe Elizabeth: English term for a mottled or pebbled georgette.[24]
• Crêpe faille sublime: Silk grosgrain with a hard-twist filling.[24]
• Crêpe flannel: Plain-woven worsted with a crêpe finish.[24]
• Crêpe imperial Late 19th century woollen crape.[6]
• Crêpe jacquard: Crepe with designs produced by jacquard weaving.[24]
• Crêpe janigor: Trade name for a heavy rib textile with alternating rayon and dull acetate warp threads, cross-dyed for varied shades.[24]
• Crêpe jersey: Vertically ribbed silk crêpe resembling the knit fabric.[24]
• Crêpe lissé (or lease): A lightweight, lustrous, slightly stiffened open-weave silk or cotton crêpe, with fewer twists than a crêpe crêpe.[24]
• Crêpela: French term for a crêpe effect.[24]
• Crepeline: Very sheer plain-woven silk usually used in textile conservation.[24] Originally introduced in the 1870s as a cheap alternative to crepe de chine.[6]
• Crêpella: Plain-woven worsted using hard-spun yarn.[24]
• Crêpe maretz An 1862 fabric.[6]
• Crêpe marocain: Heavy, cross-ribbed crêpe where the filling yarn is coarser than the warp, resembling a canton crêpe.[24]
• Crêpe meteor: Soft silk crêpe, twill weave reversing to satin.[24]
• Crêpe mohair: Silk and mohair blend crêpe.[24]
• Crêpe morette: Trade name. Lightweight worsted crêpe with heavier, looser filling.[24]
• Crêpe mosseux: A type of opaque voile which resists shrinkage.[24]
• Crêpe myosotis A later mourning crêpe made in the 1930s, in crimped silk with a soft finish.[6] Courtaulds launched this textile in the early 1930s as an alternative to the increasingly unpopular traditional stiff mourning crapes.[3]
• Crepenette: Crêpe-effect pongee.[24]
• Crêpe ondese: Rough textured rayon-acetate blend crêpe.[24]
• Crêpe poplin: A late 19th century silk-wool rib fabric with crêpe effect.[24]
• Crêpe rachel: French print cotton-worsted blend crêpe.[24]
• Crêpe radio: British raw silk crêpe with a ribbed effect, using alternate double rows of S-twist and Z-twist.[24]
• Crêpe royal: Sheer crêpe-de-chine introduced in 1889.[6]
• Crêpe suzette: A variation on crepon georgette.[24]
• Crepine: Silk with crêpe dots. The name also describes a type of fringe.[24]
• Crepoline: A class of transparent fabrics with a warp-wise crêpe effect.[24]
• Crepon: A heavier crêpe with an exaggerated warp-directional texture produced by several weaving techniques.[24] A soft silky version was introduced in 1866, and the second, much heavier version in 1882. In the 1890s crepon also described a woollen fabric that puffed between stripes or squares, including crepon milleraye (striped) and crepon Persian (with 'Oriental patterns').[6]
• Crystal crêpe: An English term for silk crêpe.[25]
• Crespe: Lightweight crimped mourning gauze, late 16th century.[6]
• Cynara: An crêpe-type fabric in rayon and acetate.[26]
• Cyprus: Fine crêpe used for mourning hatbands in the 15th-17th centuries, made in Cyprus.[27]

Types (E to L)

• 'ele'ele kanikau: Black mourning crêpe worn in Hawaii.[28]
• Epingline: Textile in silk, rayon or worsted with a crêpe surface.[29]
• Esmeralda or étendelle: Sheer white crêpe or gauze popular in the early 19th century, often embroidered.[30]
• Flat crêpe: Also called mock crepe or (inaccurately) French crepe. A smooth, flat plain-weave fabric, typically a silk blend, with hard-twisted yarns and ordinary yarn warp. Also used to describe a similar fabric made without crepe-twist yarns.[31]
• French crêpe: Inaccurately applied to flat crêpe.

1. Plain-weave light silk or rayon cloths similar to flat crêpe.
2. A lingerie weight fabric with ordinary yarn warp and a twisted filling yarn that is less twisted than typical crepe twist.[32]

• Gamsa: An imitation satin-backed crêpe in twill weave rayon.[33]

Georgette evening dress, 1930s

• Georgette: Sheer, lightweight fabric named after the couturiere Georgette de la Plante.[34]

1. A crepe-surfaced plain weave silk or synthetic fabric with alternating S and Z twist yarns in both warp and weft.
2. An English term for cotton crepe.[35]

• Georgian crêpe: A chain-pebbled crêpe (called armure in France) often with diamond, shield or bird's-eye motifs.[35]
• Health crêpe: See crêpe de santé.
• Lingerie crêpe: See French crêpe.

Types (M to Y)

• Marana: Woollen crepe, very resilient and drapable.[36]
• Mock crêpe: See flat crêpe
• Momie crêpe: Light cotton fabric.[22]
• Moss crepe: See sand crepe
• Norwich crêpe or crape:

1. 19th century silk warp and worsted, resembling a non-twill bombazine but not considered true crêpe.
2. 17th century black-dyed worsted crêpe made in England.
3. A georgette-like silk and cotton blend fabric in a crêpe weave.[3][37]

• Pekin crêpe: Pekin (shiny and matte striped textile) woven with a crêpe weft.[38]
• Plissé: Mainly cotton fabric with a crêpe effect created by chemically treating the fabric to pucker and crinkle, typically in stripes. Plissé satin is made using crêpe yarns.[39]
• Reverse crêpe: Woven with a crêpe yarn warp and flat filling.[40]
• Rhythm crêpe: Plain-weave rayon with seersucker stripe.[41]
• Romaine: Heavy but transparent crêpe.[42]
• Roshanara: Trade name for heavily ribbed satin-backed crepe.[43]
• Russian crêpe: Invented in 1881. A coarse-weave crêpe.[44]
• Sand crepe or moss crepe: Crêpe with a grained or frosted surface appearance, created with a small dobby weave.[45]
• Sawdust crêpe: Similar to sand crêpe but with a harsher surface.[46]
• Satin-back crêpe: Reversible fabric with a satin face and a crêpe reverse.[23]
• Shioze: Japanese spun-silk crêpe.[47]
• Spanish crêpe: See d'espagne.
• Victoria crepe: British-made cotton crêpe with a high lustre.[48]
• Yantsou: Figured silk crêpe made in Yantai, Eastern China.[49]
• Yeddo crêpe: Soft cotton fabric, medium weight.[50]

See also

• Crêpe paper, paper with similar texture

References

1. Online Etymology Dictionary
2. Dictionary.com
3. Taylor, pp. 246-253
4. Tortora & Johnson, p. 6
5. Lewandowski, p.6
6. Lewandowski, p.77
7. Tortora & Johnson, p.10
8. Tortora & Johnson, p. 14
9. Tortora & Johnson, p.14
10. Tortora & Johnson, p. 23
11. Tortora & Johnson, p.39
12. Lewandowski, p. 22
13. Lewandowski, p. 25
14. Tortora & Johnson, p.45
15. Tortora & Johnson, p. 52
16. Tortora & Johnson, p. 66
17. Tortora & Johnson, p. 96
18. Tortora & Johnson, p. 52
19. Lewandowski, p. 52
20. Ikegami, p.276
21. Panda, p.92
22. Lewandowski, p. 194
23. Tortora & Johnson, p. 156
24. Tortora & Johnson, p. 157
25. Tortora & Johnson, p. 164
26. Tortora & Johnson, p. 168
27. Lewandowski, p. 81
28. Lewandowski, p. 96
29. Lewandowski, p. 99
30. Tortora & Johnson, p. 215
31. Tortora & Johnson, p. 236
32. Tortora & Johnson, p. 247
33. Tortora & Johnson, p. 254
34. Picken, Mary Brooks (1957). A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion: Historic and Modern. Courier Corporation. pp. 88. ISBN 9780486402949.
35. Tortora & Johnson, p. 259
36. Tortora & Johnson, p. 372
37. Tortora & Johnson, p. 418
38. Lewandowski, p. 224
39. Tortora & Johnson, p. 465
40. Tortora & Johnson, p. 509
41. Tortora & Johnson, p. 510
42. Lewandowski, p. 252
43. Tortora & Johnson, p. 517
44. Lewandowski, p. 254
45. Tortora & Johnson, p. 527
46. Tortora & Johnson, p. 536
47. Tortora & Johnson, p. 555
48. Tortora & Johnson, p. 664
49. Tortora & Johnson, p. 693
50. Tortora & Johnson, p. 695

Bibliography

• Ikegami, Eiko (2005). Bonds of civility : aesthetic networks and political origins of Japanese culture (Reprinted ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521601153.
• Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. (2011). The complete costume dictionary. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 9780810877856.
• Panda, H. (2010). The complete book on textile processing and silk reeling technology (First ed.). Delhi: Asia Pacific Business Press, Inc. ISBN 9788178331355.
• Taylor, Lou (2009) [1983]. "Appendix 1: A Selection of Popular Mourning Fabrics". Mourning Dress: A Costume and Social History (2009 ed.). Routledge Revivals. pp. 246–253. ISBN 1135228434.
• Tortora, Phyllis G.; Johnson, Ingrid (2014). The Fairchild books dictionary of textiles (8th ed.). New York: Fairchild Books. ISBN 9781609015350.