Lurex Metallic Yarn

What is lurex?

Lurex is the registered brand name of The Lurex Company, Ltd. for a type of yarn with a metallic appearance. The yarn is made from synthetic film, onto which a metallic aluminum, silver, or gold layer has been vaporized. "Lurex" may also refer to cloth created with the yarn.

Since 1946, LUREX ® has been a leading worldwide registered brand for metallic yarns, giving a true guarantee of quality to the customers of The Lurex' Company Limited. Over the last thirty years, the company's two slogans have been “Adds a new brilliance to fashion” and “Yarns made for designers”.

What is metallic fiber?  Metallic fibers are manufactured fibers composed of metal, metallic alloys, plastic-coated metal, metal-coated plastic, or a core completely covered by metal.  Having their origin in textile and clothing applications, gold and silver fibers have been used since ancient times as yarns for fabric decoration. More recently, aluminum yarns, aluminized plastic yarns, and aluminized nylon yarns have replaced gold and silver.  Metal fibers exists in different forms and diameters. Generally, the sector offers metal fiber diameters from 100μm down to 1μm. Metallic fibers exists in both long, continuous fibers as well as short fibers (with a length/diameter ratio of less than 100).  Learn more about metallic fibers.

From Ancient Gold Thread to Vaporized Metal Film

Metallic fibers are manufactured fibers composed of metal, metallic alloys, plastic-coated metal, metal-coated plastic, or a core completely covered by metal. Gold and silver fibers have been used since ancient times as yarns for fabric decoration, because a metal thread catches light in a way no dyed fiber can, and that brilliance is the whole point of the fiber. More recently, aluminum yarns, aluminized plastic yarns and aluminized nylon yarns have replaced gold and silver, bringing the same visual effect into ordinary clothing at ordinary cost. Lurex sits exactly at that transition: a synthetic film base carrying a vaporized metallic layer, rather than a solid metal thread, so the yarn can be spun, woven and knitted with the same machinery as other yarns while keeping its metallic appearance. The two slogans capture the two sides of the product, a new brilliance to fashion for the wearer, and yarns made for designers for the maker who must work the yarn into a garment.

Metallic Fiber Forms and Their Place in Textiles

The forms matter because a metallic yarn has to survive the same mills as any other yarn. Metallic fibers are manufactured fibers composed of metal, metallic alloys, plastic-coated metal, metal-coated plastic, or a core completely covered by metal, so the definition covers both a fiber that is metal throughout and a fiber, like the vaporized-film yarn itself, that carries its metal as a surface layer on a synthetic base. The sector offers metal fiber diameters from 100 micrometres down to 1 micrometre, and metallic fibers exist in both long, continuous form and short fiber form, with a length to diameter ratio of less than 100. Length and diameter decide whether a metallic fiber can be spun with other fibers, woven as a yarn in its own right, or used as a short decorative element. Lurex may also refer to cloth created with the yarn, which is the end of that chain: a film becomes a yarn, and the yarn becomes a cloth whose metallic appearance is built in at the fiber stage rather than printed or coated on afterwards. That built-in quality is the commercial meaning of the brand's guarantee: a designer specifying Lurex is specifying a yarn whose brilliance is a property of the fiber itself, warranted by the company that has led the metallic yarn field since 1946.