Fiber Definitions — textile fibers, yarn fibers and fiber properties from Apparel Search
Lycra is INVISTA's trademark for a synthetic fabric material with elastic properties of the sort known generically as spandex. Lycra is commonly used in athletic or active clothing. As a clothing material it forms a second skin on the wearer, and it is normally one of the fabrics in leggings. The generic name for the fiber type is spandex, and Lycra is the brand name under which INVISTA markets its version of it.
Lycra is commonly used in athletic or active clothing.
Lycra as a clothing material is fetishized by some people, perhaps on the basis that the garment forms a "second skin" that acts as a fetishistic surrogate for the wearer's own skin. This is known as lycra fetishism.
Lycra is normally one of the fabrics in leggings.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lycra). 5/13/05 |
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The distinction between Lycra and spandex is the same distinction found across the manufactured fiber world: a generic name that any maker may use for the fiber type, and a trademark that belongs to one company. Spandex names the kind of material, a synthetic fiber defined by its elastic properties. Lycra names INVISTA's product of that kind. A garment label may therefore list spandex as the fiber content while the garment is marketed and sold on the strength of the Lycra brand, and a buyer comparing two pairs of leggings is really comparing how much of the elastic fiber each contains and how the rest of the fabric is built around it. Elasticity in a garment is never only about the fiber: the knit or weave around the elastic yarn decides how far the cloth stretches, how firmly it pulls back, and how it feels against the skin, which is why the same trademarked fiber can appear in garments that feel very different.
Athletic and active clothing is the natural home of an elastic fiber because sport is movement: running, cycling, stretching and training all pull a garment in directions a rigid cloth resists. An elastic material moves with the body instead of against it, and then recovers, so the garment ends the activity in the shape it started. The second-skin quality follows from the same property: a fabric that can stretch can be cut close without becoming a restraint, so leggings and active garments sit on the body as a continuous close layer. That closeness is functional, not only visual. A close garment does not catch on equipment, does not flap in wind or motion, and moves as the wearer moves, which is why elastic fibers are blended into fabrics rather than used alone: the surrounding fabric provides the surface, colour and durability, while the elastic component provides the fit. Lycra is normally one of the fabrics in leggings for exactly that reason, a component in a blend, present for its stretch rather than for its appearance.
The care of such garments follows from their construction. Because the elastic component does the fitting work, the garment's life is the life of its stretch: when an elastic fiber tires, the garment bags at the knees and waist and no washing restores it. Buyers of active clothing are therefore buying a performance property with a finite life, and the trademark exists to promise that the property meets a standard. That promise, a named company's elastic fiber behind a generic fiber name, is the whole commercial logic of the Lycra brand.
Lycra is INVISTA's trademark for a synthetic material with elastic properties of the sort known generically as spandex. Spandex is the generic fiber name; Lycra is the brand name for INVISTA's product of that type, in the same way that a brand name and a generic name coexist for many manufactured fibers.
Lycra is commonly used in athletic or active clothing, where its elastic properties let a garment move with the body and recover its shape. It is normally one of the fabrics in leggings, blended into the garment rather than used as the whole cloth.
The material's elastic properties let it stretch against the body and follow its shape closely, so the garment forms a second skin that acts as a close-fitting layer over the wearer's own skin. That close fit is the reason the fiber is chosen for active clothing, where a loose garment would flap, chafe or restrict movement.