Crêpe (textile)

For other uses, see Crepe (disambiguation).
Woman's mourning bonnet in hard crape, c.1880

Crêpe 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] also historically called crespe or crisp.[3]

Types

Detail of an aerophane dress, c.1827
  1. Crimped silk gauze with a crêpe texture.
  2. A historic 19th century lightweight crêpe,[4] introduced in 1820,[5] and, as crepe aerophane in 1861.[6]
  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]
  1. A British-made plain-weave cloth with figured crêpe designs
  2. Piece-dyed silk crêpe embroidered with dots.[10]
Chirimen
Crepe de chine
  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]
Georgette evening dress, 1930s
  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]
  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]

Entry from Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911)

CRAPE (an anglicized version of the Fr. crêpe), a silk fabric of a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance. It is woven of hard spun silk yarn " in the gum" or natural condition.

There are two distinct varieties of the textile: soft, Canton or Oriental crape; and hard or crisped crape. The wavy appearance of Canton crape results from the peculiar manner in which the weft is prepared, the yarn from two bobbins being twisted together in the reverse way. The fabric when woven is smooth and even, having no crepe appearance, but when the gum is subsequently extracted by boiling it at once becomes soft, and the weft, losing its twist, gives the fabric the waved structure which constitutes its distinguishing feature. Canton crapes are used, either white or coloured, for ladies' scarves and shawls, bonnet trimmings, &c.

The Chinese and Japanese excel in the manufacture of soft crapes. The crisp and elastic structure of hard crape is not produced either in the spinning or in the weaving, but is due to processes through which the gauze passes after it is woven. What the details of these processes are is known to only a few manufacturers, who so jealously guard their secret that, in some cases, the different stages in the manufacture are conducted in towns far removed from each other.

Commercially they are distinguished as single, double, three-ply and four-ply crapes, according to the nature of the yarn used in their manufacture. They are almost exclusively dyed black and used in mourning dress, and among Roman Catholic communities for nuns' veils, &c. In Great Britain hard crapes are made at Braintree in Essex, Norwich, Yarmouth, Manchester and Glasgow. The crape formerly made at Norwich was made with a silk warp and worsted weft, and is said to have afterwards degenerated into bombazine. A very successful imitation of real crape is made in Manchester of cotton yarn, and sold under the name of Victoria crape.

References

  1. Online Etymology Dictionary
  2. Dictionary.com
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Taylor, pp. 246-253
  4. Tortora & Johnson, p. 6
  5. 1 2 Lewandowski, p.6
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Lewandowski, p.77
  7. Tortora & Johnson, p.10
  8. 1 2 Tortora & Johnson, p. 14
  9. Tortora & Johnson, p.14
  10. Tortora & Johnson, p. 23
  11. Tortora & Johnson, p.39
  12. 1 2 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. 1 2 Lewandowski, p. 52
  20. Ikegami, p.276
  21. Panda, p.92
  22. 1 2 Lewandowski, p. 194
  23. 1 2 3 Tortora & Johnson, p. 156
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 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. p. 88. ISBN 9780486402949.
  35. 1 2 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. 
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "article name needed". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
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