Taffeta - exquisite, noble and expensive fabric

Taft is a fabric that effectively demonstrated over the centuries the wealth and high social status of its owners. From this hard and dense material, manufactured in former times only by hand from natural silk, luxurious evening dresses with magnificent and voluminous silhouettes were sewed, and also decorated with interiors of rich mansions and palaces. Does today's taffeta use its former popularity and has something changed in its composition and mode of production? We will try to answer all the questions in this article.

Why is it called?

There was a name "taffeta" from the Persian word tæfɨtə, meaning "cloth" or "woven". According to scientists, it was in Persia that taffeta was first produced - fabric, the photo of which is presented below. However, the exact time and place of its appearance can not be established today.

There is a hypothesis that originally this material was made in Persia from imported Chinese or Indian raw materials.

A bit of history

Thanks to the Great Silk Road, Persian taffeta - a beautiful and richly decorated fabric - fell first to the southern regions of Europe, and then spread to other regions. Of this material, very expensive at that time, sewed costumes and dresses for the court nobles. Byzantium became the first European state to establish its own production of taffeta. In the XIV century, the center for the manufacture of this fabric moved to Italy, and later the canvas spread to Spain, France, Germany and other states. Despite the fact that the fabric was no longer imported from Eastern countries, its price remained rather high, as both raw materials and dyes were imported and cost very dearly.

Taft in Russia

In our country this material was, as historians suggest, in the 15th century from Byzantium. Taft is a fabric that fell in love with both the Russian nobility and the clergy. She was sewn as secular dresses and caftans, and dresses for religious servants. In the XVII century, this material was still very expensive and was used only to decorate the nobility, the higher clergy and the production of the re-banners of selected regiments.

Kinds

Taffeta is a plain weave fabric , thin and smooth, with a beautiful iridescent luster. Previously, it was made only from natural silk, but today they are made of different materials with different properties. All existing types of taffeta can be divided into three groups:

• Made of natural fibers (cotton and silk);
• Manufactured from synthetic materials (acetate and viscose);
• Blended, with the creation of which - in various proportions - both artificial and natural fibers are used.

The most expensive are natural fabrics, from which sophisticated ladies' toilets are sewn, as they have excellent consumer qualities, such as environmental friendliness, wear resistance, hygroscopicity and hypoallergenicity. But the modern fabric (taffeta) for curtains - as a rule, artificial or mixed, which is due to a beautiful and exquisite appearance at a fairly low price.

By the method of coloring, the taffeta is isolated:

• From pre-painted yarn;
• Painted "piece" after fabrication. Also, modern taffeta can have different textures: smooth, stuffed, roasted.

Taffeta, painted after production, is softer, and it is used for sewing linings and various decorative interior decorations. The canvas, woven from pre-painted yarn, is more rigid, and from it sew corsets, ballroom and evening dresses.

Fashion designers and high-class tailors distinguish, depending on the density, several types of this material. For example, grosden, lustrin, taffeta-atlas, poo de sua and others.

Advantages and disadvantages

As already mentioned, the main characteristics of the material depend on the raw material from which the fabric is made, but there are a number of properties, both positive and negative, characteristic of any type of taffeta.

The merits include:

1. A beautiful fabric with a characteristic glossy gloss with overflow.

2. Perfectly holds the form and is perfectly draped.

3. Long service life. With proper care, any fabric (curtains taffeta is no exception) will last for several decades.

4. High strength.

5. Hygroscopicity (the ability to repel water) due to the tight interlacing of threads.

Like most materials, taffeta has its drawbacks:

• Strongly wrinkles and can form difficult to smooth folds and creases;
• It is crumbled during cutting;
• Gives a shrink when washing in hot water.

How is it done?

If before, the taffeta (or, as it is also called, the taffeta) was made by the oldest weave weave known to mankind - linen (weft-base), and only manually, now special machines allow producing this material on an industrial scale. To produce such a fabric, dry, thin and dense twisted natural or artificial threads are used.