Fabric Definitions — definitions of fabrics, cloths, laces and textile materials from Apparel Search
Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp and one weft, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin weave and the ground in weft-faced or sateen weave, so long satin floats catch the light differently from the ground according to the observer's position. Modern damasks are woven on computerized Jacquard looms.
Modern damasks are woven on computerized Jacquard looms. Damask weaves are commonly produced in monochromatic (single-color) weaves in silk, linen, or synthetic fibers such as rayon and feature patterns of flowers, fruit, and other designs. The long floats of satin-woven warp and weft threads cause soft highlights on the fabric which reflect light differently according to the position of the observer. Damask weaves appear most commonly in table linens and furnishing fabrics, but they are also used for clothing. The damask weave is used extensively throughout the fashion industry due to its versatility and high-quality finish. Damask is usually used for mid-to-high-quality garments, meaning the label tends to have a higher definition and a more “expensive” look.
Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin weave and the ground in weft-faced or sateen weave.
The word "damask" first appeared in records in a Western European language in the mid-14th century in French. By the 14th century, damasks were being woven on draw looms in Italy. From the 14th to 16th century, most damasks were woven in one color with a glossy warp-faced satin pattern against a duller ground. Two-color damasks had contrasting color warps and wefts, and polychrome damasks added gold and other metallic threads or additional colors as supplemental brocading wefts. Medieval damasks were usually woven in silk, but weavers also produced wool and linen damasks.
Twill damasks include a twill-woven ground or pattern.
Damask can be used for clothing labels. Woven fabric labels favor damask as the ideal choice for fine quality clothing labels. Typically considered high end and used for intricate details, such as signatures or small text. Damask is a thinner thread then other woven fabric labels, often referred to as Denier Density.
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Damask is the most economical of the figured weaves: no extra threads, no second color, only a decision, repeated at every point of the pattern, about which set of threads shall face upward. Where warp floats dominate, the surface is smooth and lustrous; where weft floats dominate, it is matte. A table napkin in white linen damask therefore carries a full floral design that a guest sees only when the light is right — decoration pitched at the level of sheen rather than color. Weaving that decision point by point requires a loom that can control warp threads in pattern groups, which is why damask's history runs through the draw looms of 14th-century Italy to the Jacquard loom and its computerized descendants: the pattern is information, and the loom is the machine that stores it.
Medieval damasks were usually silk, though wool and linen damasks were also produced, and from the 14th to the 16th century most were woven in one color — glossy satin pattern on duller ground — with two-color and polychrome versions, adding contrasting warps and wefts or gold brocading threads, at the luxury end; twill damasks use a twill ground or pattern. The name itself, recorded in French in the mid-14th century, recalls Damascus, the trading city associated with the cloth. Today the weave's center of gravity is the table and the furnishing trade — tablecloths, napkins and upholstery where a reversible, single-color figured cloth in linen, cotton, silk or rayon gives pattern without color commitment — with clothing uses and the label trade at its fine end. A damask garment and a damask napkin are the same weave answering the same brief: richness that does not shout.
Because pattern and ground are the same color and differ only in weave direction. The warp-faced satin pattern reflects light glossily while the weft-faced ground reflects it dully; as the cloth or the viewer moves, the two areas trade brightness, and the design — flowers, fruit and other motifs — shows or fades with the angle.
Yes. The weave structure reverses exactly: where the face shows satin pattern on sateen ground, the back shows the same pattern with the weaves exchanged. That reversibility, in a single color, is what separates damask from brocade, whose supplementary pattern threads make it one-faced.
Woven labels favor damask weave because its fine threads — described by denier density — render intricate detail such as signatures and small text sharply, with a high-end finish. Damask label weave is thinner and more detailed than coarser woven label constructions.