SILK CREPE DE CHINE FABRIC

Silk Crepe de Chine fabric (CDC for crepe de chine fabric; Crepe or Crepe de Chine, Chinese crepe fabric) has a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance. Crepe de Chine, also spelled Crêpe De Chine, (French: “crepe of China”), light and fine plain-woven dress fabric produced either with all-silk warp and weft or else with a silk warp and hard-spun worsted weft. A crepe de Chine texture has a slight crepe character, a feature produced by the use of weft, or filling, yarns spun with the twist running in reverse directions and known as a right-hand and left-hand twist, respectively.

Silk Crepe Fabric is a woven material with a flowing drape. Crepe Fabric has a rough, crinkled texture with a granular surface. Crepe yarn is tightly wrapped which causes the fabric's textured appearance.

Silk CDC fabric 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 crape results from the peculiar manner in which the weft is prepared, the yarn from two bobbins being twisted together in a reverse way. The fabric when woven is smooth and even, having no crape 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. Silk CDC is used, either white or colored, for scarves and shawls, bonnet trimmings, etc.

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. In 1911, the details of these processes were known to only a few manufacturers, who so jealously guarded their secrets that, in some cases, the different stages in the manufacture were conducted in towns far removed from each other. Commercially they are distinguished as single, double (2-ply fabric), three-ply (3-ply fabric) and four-ply (4-ply fabric) crapes, according to the nature of the yarn used in their manufacture. Now a day, the 4-ply fabric is one of the most successful items among multi-ply fabric family.

Crepe silk fabric is undoubtedly the most absorbent fabric with breathable hues and versatile enough to be dyed and printed with different patterns and motifs. It can also be easily embellished and embroidered. The crepe de chine silk fabric, however, is considered more “modern” due to its western confluence which makes it extremely versatile, lightweight, easily draped and the origin of the fabric from the western countries. The popularity of crepe silhouettes rose during the earlier times when the royalty embraced crepe fabrics as a part and parcel of their daily wear. Queens and palaces adorned the graceful and eloquent crepe drapes to symbolize their class.

Silk Crepe de Chine Fabric