Tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, trousers and some other garments
This article is about the twill-woven fabric. For the garment, see Gaberdine. For the rock band, see Gabardine (band).
Gabardine is a durable twillworstedwool, a tightly woven fabric originally waterproof and used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers, outerwear and other garments. Often associated with the Burberry fashion house and their synonymous trench coats, the original reference, "gaberdine", it related to the long, cape-like dress worn during the medieval era.
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History
The word gaberdine or gabardine has been used to refer to a particular item of clothing, a sort of long cassock but often open at the front, since at least the 15th century. In the 16th century the term began to be used for outer garments of the poor, later narrowed to a rain cloak or protective smock-frock.[1][2]
Compared to fabrics which preceded it, gabardine was lightweight, durable, and breathable. Its ability to shed water and break wind helped revolutionize outerwear.[upper-alpha 1]
Gabardine is woven as a warp-faced steep or regular twill, with a prominent diagonal rib on the face and smooth surface on the back. Gabardine always has many more warp than weft yarns.[6][7][1]
Gabardine is tightly woven and water-repellent but more comfortable and breathable than rubberised fabrics.[7]
Gabardine was also used widely in the 1950s to produce colourful patterned casual jackets, trousers and suits. Companies like J. C. Penney, Sport Chief, Campus, Four Star, Curlee, Towncraft, and Oxford Clothes produced short-waisted gabardine jackets, sometimes reversible, commonly known as "Ricky jackets" or "Gab jackets," along with the famous Hollywood leisure jackets that had been made since the 1930s.
Cotton gabardine is often used by bespoke tailors to make pocketlinings for suits, where the pockets' contents would quickly wear holes in flimsy pocket lining material.[9]
Trench coats were worn by officers in World War I: "What makes gabardine unique is the fabric’s ability to be water-resistant and breathable at the same time. It’s also an extremely tough fabric which made it perfect for military use. Not only were officers wearing a trench coat able to stay comparatively dry in the trenches during rain, thanks to the breathability of gabardine, but the coats also did not make them sweat and dehydrate in hot and humid temperatures either."[4]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Gabardine, and is written by contributors.
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