Silk Classification Series Sixth Velvet & Silk-and-Wool Bengaline

Silk Classification Series Sixth Velvet & Silk-and-Wool Bengaline

Silk boasts excellent properties like good moisture absorption, skin-friendliness, and a soft, luxurious luster. Over its 6,000-year history, the silk industry's craftsmen and technicians have developed a myriad of silk fabrics, widely used in both clothing and home textiles.

Fabric Classification: Silk fabrics are usually categorized into 14 major types based on their structure, appearance, and style. These include: Spun Silk, Chiffon, Satin, Crepe, Organza, Georgette, Shantung, Damask, Crinkle Silk, Pongee, Tussah, Velvet, Wool Silk, and Brocade.

Velvet

Velvet is made by interweaving mulberry silk with synthetic silk, creating a raised fabric surface covered with a layer of plush or loops. This results in a dense, thick, elastic fabric with a bright color, luxurious look, and a soft, smooth feel, making it a high-end silk fabric.

Typical Characteristics: Velvet fabrics have a plush or looped surface, available in both patterned and plain styles, such as Qiaoqi velvet, Swan velvet, and printed Qiaoqi velvet, ideal for traditional Eastern women's clothing like cheongsams.

Depending on the processing method, velvet is divided into double-layer split pile, weft pile with a frosting style, pile fabrics made with pile rods, and cut pile fabrics with floating warp or weft threads.

Varieties include solid color velvet, printed velvet, flower-printed velvet, burnout velvet, and striped velvet.

Main Varieties: Velour, Qiaoqi velvet, Swan velvet, available in solid color, printed, flower-printed, burnout, and striped velvet based on the processing method.

Primary Use: Ideal for clothing fabric.

Examples: Velour, Flower-printed Velvet

    Golden velvet                                                                     Rotten velvet

Silk-and-Wool Bengaline

Silk-and-wool bengaline is a plain weave fabric made with long silk threads as the warp and either cotton or waxed cotton threads as the weft, resulting in a thick, clear-patterned fabric. It is divided into glazed bengaline and waxed yarn bengaline. Common glazed bengaline typically uses shiny viscose filament as the warp and mercerized cotton yarn as the weft.

This type of fabric, historically used for quilt covers, is now rarely seen.