Poplin Fabric Directory

What Poplin Fabric Is

Poplin began as a luxury cloth, a silk warp with a worsted weft woven in Avignon and named, by tradition, for the Pope's residence there; the modern cloth keeps the structure and changes the fibres. Today's poplin is a plain weave in which many more fine warp threads than weft threads are packed into each inch, and the weft is a touch heavier, so the warp wraps slightly around it and the cloth shows a fine rib running across its width. Cotton is the standard fibre, with polyester-cotton poplin woven at volume for uniforms and easy-care shirting, and silk and wool poplins surviving at the dressy end. The result is a fabric denser and crisper than a lawn, smoother than its rib suggests, and strong for its weight.

That combination, a fine rib you feel more than see, a surface that takes print and embroidery crisply, and a body that holds a crease, is why poplin became a default rather than a specialty. It is not a soft, draping cloth: poplin stands a little away from the body, which suits structured shirts, dresses and uniforms, and it wrinkles in wear, honestly, the way crisp cottons do. Weights run from light shirting to a medium cloth used for trousers and light jackets, and the rib should be perfectly even, since any irregularity in the weft shows across a plain-dyed shirt front as a bar the mill cannot argue away.

Where Poplin Fabric Is Used

Shirting leads: men's and women's shirts and blouses, school and service uniforms, and medical and hospitality workwear in poly-cotton, where the cloth's crispness reads as cleanliness. Dresses and skirts take poplin for its structure, summer trousers and shorts for its cool, dry hand, and children's clothing for a fabric that washes and irons back to smart. Poplin is also a printing ground for fashion cottons, a lining and pocketing cloth, and in its coated and heavier forms a light outerwear and trench cloth, the role that made cotton poplin a raincoat staple. Stretch poplin with a touch of elastane has widened the shirting and trouser market the cloth already owned.

The eleven listings below are this directory's poplin manufacturers, each linked to its Fabric Mills by Name profile: Ahmed Fine Textile Mills Limited of Pakistan, Alok Textile Industries of India, Best Textiles International Co.,Ltd, Flytex Fabric Company Limited, Shanghai Best Linen Cotton Textile Factory and Shenghong Group Co Ltd of China, Beximco Group of Bangladesh, Shamala Textiles, Supreme Textile Industries (Pvt) Limited, Textiles Rio Lindo, S.A. de C.V. of Honduras, and Xiamen C and D Inc. of China. None has been removed: no listing was verified dead, and this directory's standing rule is to keep a listing when in doubt. Thank you for using the Apparel Search Fabric Mill Directory.

Specifying and Caring for Poplin

Specify poplin by fibre and blend, warp and weft counts where the mill publishes them, weight, and finish, and inspect plain-dyed samples across the full width under good light, because barré, the faint horizontal striping from weft variation, is poplin's characteristic fault and hides in folded swatches. Check the rib by touch: it should be fine, even and identical from selvedge to selvedge. For shirting, confirm shrinkage and easy-care finish claims together, since a resin finish that controls wrinkles also slightly reduces tear strength, a trade the uniform trade accepts and the fashion trade should make knowingly.

Care matches the cloth's crisp character. Cotton poplin washes warm, benefits from being removed slightly damp and ironed, when it gives one of the cleanest finishes in the cotton family, and softens gradually without losing its structure. Poly-cotton poplin needs less ironing and dries faster, at a small cost in the pure cotton hand. Wash poplin with similar colours, avoid over-drying, which sets wrinkles into the dense weave, and store shirts hung. A poplin garment that has gone limp usually needs nothing more exotic than a proper wash and a firm iron to return to itself.

Poplin Fabric Manufacturers Listed Here