Fiber Definitions — textile fibers, yarn fibers and fiber properties from Apparel Search
Mohair is a silk-like fabric made from the hair of the Angora goat. It is durable, light and warm. The word mohair was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic mukhayyar, a type of haircloth, literally choice, from khayyana, he chose. Mohair is one of the specialty animal hair fibers, and its directory covers educational information and links to resources relevant to mohair fibers and mohair textiles.
Welcome to the mohair fiber directory section of the Apparel Search website. In this section, you will find educational information and links to resources relevant to mohair fibers. If you work in the apparel industry or simply have an interest in mohair textiles, this is the area for you. If you do not find enough information in this section of our mohair fibers guide, you may wish to check the textile section or go back to the fiber directory main page for additional textile fiber choices.
Mohair is a silk-like fabric made from the hair of the Angora goat. It is durable, light and warm. The word was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic mukhayyar, a type of haircloth, literally 'choice', from khayyana, 'he chose'.
You can learn more about Mohair from MohairUSA at the following web site http://www.mohairusa.com/
If you work for a company that supplies mohair textile products, you can use the add your company link at the bottom of this page to create a listing on the Apparel Search mohair directory pages.
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Most animal fibers ask the buyer to choose between warmth and lustre: wool insulates but is matte, silk shines but is a filament with its own care demands. Mohair's place in the fiber world is that it offers a measure of both in one hair. It is durable, so a mohair fabric survives wear that a delicate lustrous fabric would not; it is light, so its warmth does not come with weight; and it is warm, so the light fabric still serves in cold weather. The silk-like description is about surface, the smooth, light-reflecting character of the goat's hair, and it explains why mohair has historically been chosen for fabrics that must look rich and work hard at the same time, from suiting and dress fabrics to upholstery and blankets. The Angora goat, not the Angora rabbit, is the source, and keeping that distinction straight is the first step in buying or selling the fiber honestly, since angora wool's softness and halo and mohair's lustre and durability are different products at different prices.
Mohair sits inside the wider textile fiber trade, and its resources connect outward in the same pattern as the other specialty fibers: to the textile section for fabric information, to the fiber directory main page for other textile fiber choices, and to MohairUSA for the industry's own information on the fiber. Companies that supply mohair textile products list in the mohair directory pages, and the textile fiber news area carries the fiber's trade news. That structure reflects mohair's scale: it is a specialty fiber, produced in far smaller quantities than wool, traded by specialists, and bought by makers who choose it deliberately for the properties named in its definition. Nobody uses mohair by accident or as a cheap filler; its durability, lightness, warmth and lustre are a considered specification, and the word's own history, a haircloth whose name means choice, has described its market accurately for more than four and a half centuries.
Mohair comes from the hair of the Angora goat. It is not angora wool, which comes from the Angora rabbit; the two fibers share a name root in the Angora region but come from different animals and have different handling. Mohair is a silk-like fabric that is durable, light and warm.
The word was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic mukhayyar, a type of haircloth, literally meaning choice, from khayyana, meaning he chose. The word itself therefore records the fiber's standing as a chosen, selected haircloth.
Mohair is durable, light and warm, with a silk-like character. That combination, the lustre associated with silk together with the durability and warmth of an animal hair, is what has kept mohair in use as a distinct fiber rather than a substitute for either wool or silk.