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Textile Glossary
Cutting through the jargon
This glossary is a resource aimed at helping share and simplify both generic and industry specific information, expertise and knowledge. This service is provided as a committment to visitors to our site and the industry as whole. Although we aim to ensure that all the content is correct, please bear in mind that some areas of the industry move fast and terminology and its application can change.
Lace
A fine openwork fabric with a ground of mesh or net on which patterns may be worked at the same time as the ground is formed or applied later, and which is made of yarn by looping, twisting, or knitting, either by hand with a needle or bobbin, or by machinery; also a similar fabric made by crocheting, tatting, darning, embroidering, weaving, or knitting.
Lamb's wool
Wool obtained from a lamb (a young sheep up to eight months old or up to weaning).
Laminated
A compound fabric usually comprised of a continuous sheet of thermoplastic film such as polyurethane or pvc bonded to a base fabric with heat or adhesive.
Lap
(1) (general) a sheet of fibres or fabric wrapped round a core with specific applications in different sections of the industry, e.g., sheets of fibre wound on rollers or round endless aprons to facilitate transfer from one process to the next., note: in cotton spinning, the sheets of fibre from openers and scutchers, sliver-lap machines, and ribbon-lap machines are wound on cores. , ( 2) (flax) an arrangement of the fibre strands in scutched flax, pieced out for hackling, or in pieces of hackled flax, to facilitate their removal as separate units from built-up bundles. (3) (fabric.) The length of fabric between successive transverse folds when pieces are plaited down or folded,, (4) (fabric) an individual layer of fabric in roll form., (5) fibres wrapped accidentally round any rotating machine part., (6) silk waste after discharging and combing, but before processing into sliver or top. The staple length of the fibre decreases between the first, second and third drafts (combings).
Lap waste (wool)
A sheet of fibres accidentally wound round rollers or aprons. It is substantially without twist and may be carded without further processing.
Latent crimp
A crimp that is potentially present in specially prepared fibres or filaments and that can be developed by a specific treatment such as thermal relaxation or tensioning and subsequent relaxation.
Length, fabric
Unless otherwise specified, the usable length of a piece between any truth marks, piece-ends, or numbering, when the fabric is measured laid flat on a table in the absence of tension.
Leno
Refers to an open weave fabric. In a leno weave the warp yarns are arranged in pairs, twisting or interlocking around the filling yarn to prevent slippage and make the open weave stronger and more firm.
Leno fabric
A fabric in which warp threads have been made to cross one another, between the picks, during weaving. The crossing of the warp threads may be a general feature of plain leno fabrics (as marquisette and some gauzes and muslins) or may be used in combination with other weaves (as in some cellular fabrics).
Levelling
Migration of dye leading to uniform coloration of a substrate.
Light Melton
500 gsm Fine Wool Melton used for trimmings and badges.
Limp
Refers to a fabric that is very drapey and lacking in body.
Linear density
The mass per unit length of linear textile material.
Linen
(1) descriptive of yarns spun entirely from flax fibres., (2) descriptive of fabrics woven from linen yarns., (3) descriptive of articles which, apart from adornments, are made of yarns spun from flax, note: despite some usage of this term in non-technical circles as a generic one, e.g. Linen department, baby linen, household linen, it does not apply to individual articles that do not comply with the definition.
Lingerie
Feminine underwear, slumberwear and similar garments of fine texture and aesthetic appeal., note: the term, derived from the french 'lin', referred originally to linen articles, especially ladies' underwear.
Linseed flax
Varieties of flax cultivated mainly for seed production.
Lint
(1) the main seed hair of the cotton plant, (cf. Linters).,(2) a plain-weave, highly absorbent material with one raised fleecy surface. For surgical purposes it is sterilised.
Liquid ammonia treatment
A process during which textile material is immersed in or brought into contact with anhydrous liquid ammonia. The treatment confers 'flat setting', i.e., smooth drying properties and an attractive soft handle to cotton fabrics.
Locks
A term used in wool-sorting for short oddments of wool which fall from the skirting tables or are swept up from the boards. In some countries it can include soiled tufts and pieces from near the rumps of sheep.
Loden
Coarse woollen milled water-repellent fabric used for jackets, coats and capes.
Lofty
A term applied to an assemblage of fibres to denote a relatively high degree of openness and resilience, or a large volume for a given mass.
Loom
A term used for weaving machine.
Loom-state
Any woven fabric as it leaves the loom before it receives any subsequent processing.
Loose
Refers to a fabric that is not tightly constructed and shifts easily.
Lustre
The display of different intensities of light, reflected both specularly and diffusely from different parts of a surface exposed to the same incident light. High lustre is associated with gross differences of this kind, and empirical measurements of lustre depend on the ratio of the intensities of reflected light for specified angles of incidence and viewing., note: this definition makes these differences in intensity of light the key point, since these form the chief subjective impression on the observer of lustre. Both specular and diffuse light must be present together, for, if diffuse light only is present, the surface is matt, not lustrous, whereas, if specular light only is present, the surface is mirror-like, and again not lustrous. The phrase 'exposed to the same incident light' has been included to rule out shadow effects, which have no part in lustre proper. The general term 'surface' is intended to apply to fibres, yarns, and fabrics, and indeed to other surfaces, e.g., that of a pearl (through there the differently reflecting parts are very close together). In the second sentence of the definition, lustre is regarded as a positive function of the differences, the appropriate adjective of intensification being 'high'.
The Life Guards
"The Regiment of Life Guards is a cavalry regiment in the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry . The Life Guards is the senior regiment of the British Army. With the Blues and Royals they make up the Household Cavalry.
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