Taffeta is a fabric that has effectively demonstrated over the centuries the wealth and high social status of its owners. Luxurious evening toilets with lush and voluminous silhouettes were sewed from this hard and dense material, made in the past only by hand from natural silk, and it also adorned the interiors of rich mansions and palaces.
Does taffeta enjoy its former popularity today and has something changed in its composition and
production method? We will try to answer all the questions in this article.
Why is that called?
The name “taffeta” came from the Persian word tæfɨtə, meaning “fabric” or “woven”. According to scientists, it was in Persia that taffeta, the fabric, the photo of which is presented below, first began to be produced. However, the exact time and place of its appearance cannot be established today.
There is a hypothesis that initially this material was made in Persia from imported Chinese or Indian raw materials.
A bit of history
Thanks to the Great Silk Road, the Persian taffeta - a beautiful and richly decorated fabric - first came to the southern regions of Europe, and then spread to other regions. Costumes and dresses for court nobles were sewed from this material, which was very expensive at that time. Byzantium became the first European state to establish its own production of taffeta. In the XIV century, the center for the manufacture of this fabric moved to Italy, and later the canvas spread to Spain, France, Germany and other states. Despite the fact that the fabric was no longer imported from the eastern countries, its price remained quite high, since the raw materials and dyes were imported and were very expensive.
Taffeta in Russia
This material came to our country, as historians suggest, in the 15th century from Byzantium. Taffeta is a fabric loved by both Russian nobility and the clergy. From it sewed both secular dresses and caftans, and ceremonial vestments for religious ministers. In the XVII century, this material was still very expensive and was used only for decorating the outfits of the nobility, the higher clergy and the manufacture of Reitars banners of selected regiments.
Views
Taffeta is a plain weave fabric , thin and smooth, with a beautiful iridescent sheen. Previously, it was made only from natural silk, but today it is made from different materials with different properties. All existing types of taffeta can be divided into three groups:
- made from natural fibers (cotton and silk);
- made from synthetic materials (acetate and viscose);
- mixed, in the creation of which are used - in various proportions - both artificial and natural fibers.
The most expensive are natural fabrics from which exquisite ladies' toilets are sewn, as they have excellent consumer qualities, such as environmental friendliness, wear resistance, hygroscopicity and hypoallergenicity. But the modern fabric (taffeta) for curtains is usually artificial or mixed, which is due to the beautiful and sophisticated appearance at a fairly low price.
According to the coloring method, taffeta is isolated:
- from pre-dyed yarn;
- painted “piece” after manufacture. Also, modern taffeta can have various textures: smooth, printed, reaped.
Taffeta, painted after manufacture, is softer, and it is used for sewing linings and various decorative decorations of the interior. The fabric, woven from pre-dyed yarn, is tougher, and corsets, ballroom and evening dresses are sewn from it.
Fashion designers and high-class tailors distinguish, depending on density, several types of this material. For example, grodenaple, lustrin, taffeta-atlas, pu-de-sua and others.
Advantages and disadvantages
As already mentioned, the main characteristics of the material depend on the feedstock from which the fabric is made, but there are a number of properties, both positive and negative, characteristic of any type of taffeta.
The advantages include:
1. Beautiful fabric with a characteristic glossy sheen with overflow.
2. Keeps fit perfectly and drapes well.
3. Long service life. With proper care, any fabric (drape taffeta is no exception) will last more than a dozen years.
4. High strength.
5. Hygroscopicity (ability to repel water) due to the dense interweaving of threads.
Like most materials, taffeta has its drawbacks:
- wrinkles strongly and can form difficult to smooth wrinkles and creases;
- crumbles during cutting;
- shrinks when washed in hot water.
How do they do it?
If earlier taffeta (or, as it is also called, taffeta) was made by the method of the most ancient weaving known to mankind - linen (weft-warp), and only by hand, today special machines allow this material to be produced on an industrial scale. For the production of such fabric, dry, thin and dense twisted natural or artificial threads are used.