Apparel Fabric Selection
Pick the fibre for the behaviour your customer notices, then the weight, then the proof.
One page for every fabric decision in a programme: what a fibre does in the wash, how weight and structure set the price, and which claims you can actually document. Work down the three routes, then use the sections below for the sourcing and finishing decisions that sit around them.
- Three routes cover all 16 fabric articles in this cluster
- Four decisions separate a fabric that repeats from one that does not
- Every route ends in a specification you can send to a mill
Three routes, and you only need one of them
Start from the question you are actually asking: what the fabric does, what it costs, or what you are allowed to claim.
Start from behaviour, not the fibre name
Take this route when the customer has already complained about something — shrinkage, pilling, heat, or a claim that will not survive a spreadsheet. Behaviour first, marketing language second.
Set the weight, structure and trims
Take this route once the fibre is settled and the argument is about price, hand-feel and whether the seam survives thirty washes. This is where most of the unit cost is decided.
Prove the claim before you print the label
Take this route when sustainability, certification or a performance claim is part of the product story rather than a footnote on the pack. Documents travel with the goods, so they have to be arranged at the fabric order.
A swatch proves nothing about next season
Mill selection and repeatability are a different skill from fabric selection, and they are where most programmes lose a year.
Repeatability is the mill, not the swatch
The swatch you approved came from a sample loom or a stock roll. The question that matters is whether the same mill can run the same construction, the same count and the same finish in eight months, on a different dye lot, without moving the shade or the hand. That is a question about the mill’s equipment and its order book, and it is answered before you place the first bulk order rather than after the second one arrives.
How to read a fabric supplier list
Published supplier lists are useful for finding names and useless for ranking them, because the inclusion criteria are never stated and the same handful of large mills appears on every list. Read them for coverage of a region or a fibre, then verify each candidate on equipment, minimum order and lead time. Two markets in particular generate more list traffic than substance, so treat those rankings as a starting point for a search rather than as a shortlist.
The trims finish what the fabric starts
A garment reads cheap or finished at the last five per cent of its specification, which is almost always the trims.
Trims are a comfort decision, not an afterthought
Thread, elastic, tape, zip and label weight are specified last and noticed first. Cheaper elastic recovers less and shows at the waist after a month; a lighter tape curls in the wash; a stiff label scratches at the neck. Specify elasticity as a recovery figure rather than a width, and treat the label as part of the comfort specification rather than part of the artwork. The cost difference is measured in cents and the perceived difference is not.
We will develop the fabric with the garment
Fabric selection only holds if the mill and the sewing floor are working to the same specification. Our fabric development service knits, tests and documents the construction for the programme it is going into, so the swatch that gets approved is the fabric that gets repeated. Bring the fibre, the weight band and the destination market, and we will come back with a construction and a wash-test result rather than a colour card.
Four decisions decide whether a fabric works
Everything else on this page is a consequence of these four.
Fibre behaviour, not fibre marketing
Cotton, modal, lyocell, viscose and polyester fail in different ways. Choose the failure you can live with, then write the story that goes with it.
Weight and yarn count together
GSM sets the price band and the yarn count sets the hand-feel. Specify one without the other and you have left the result to the knitter.
Shrinkage measured, not promised
A wash-test result predicts whether the garment still fits in three months. A swatch on a card cannot, however good it looks in a meeting.
Certification arranged at the fabric order
Transaction certificates and test reports travel with the goods. A claim sorted out at label printing arrives after the fabric has already shipped.
Where to go from here
The four adjacent guides, for the decisions either side of fabric selection.
Fabric selection questions
Which fabric is best for a new apparel programme?
Does a higher GSM mean better quality?
What is the difference between bamboo viscose and bamboo lyocell?
How much does a fabric claim cost?
Should I specify the fabric or let the factory choose?
Request a fabric review
Send the fibre, the target weight, the garment it is going into and the destination market. We will come back with a construction, a wash-test result and the documents your label will need.
Send your fabric spec