What Is Crêpe?

How is crêpe made?

Crêpe is made by giving cloth a crinkled, grainy surface, usually by weaving with hard-twisted yarns, by using a crepe weave, or by treating finished cloth with chemicals or embossing. The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion adds a fourth route, uneven warp tension, which produces seersucker. The fabric can be woven from any of the major fibres, natural or man-made, including silk, wool, cotton, rayon and polyester.

High-twist yarns

The classic method uses crepe yarn, which carries more twists per inch than ordinary yarn. Weft yarns twisted in opposite directions, known as S and Z twist, are alternated singly or in pairs in a plain-weave cloth. When the cloth is released from the tension of the loom, the opposing twists give it a rippled surface. In crêpe de Chine, the alternating pairs relax during finishing, which is when the crinkle appears.

Crepe weave

A crepe weave gets its texture from the interlacing rather than the yarn. Some of the crossings found in plain weave are left out, so a yarn floats over three threads instead of one. The small, irregular floats look bumpy, and this approach works best in heavier fabrics made from yarns of ordinary twist.

Slack warp tension

Greene counts seersucker as a type of crêpe: its puckered stripes run along the warp and come from slack tension during weaving. It is usually sold under its own name.

Chemical and embossed finishes

The last route adds texture after weaving. An English method of 1822 passed silk gauze under a heated, engraved copper cylinder to emboss a pattern. Cotton printed with an alkali shrinks where the chemical touches it, leaving a permanent pucker, and heat-sensitive synthetics can be crinkled permanently with heat. These finishes overlap with crinkled fabric, and not every pressed texture lasts.

What are the properties of crêpe?

Crêpe has a grainy, crinkled surface, drapes well, can stretch, and shrinks easily when it gets wet.

• Surface: from a fine, flat grain to pebbled, mossy or bark-like textures. Black crape's sombre, rough, unglossed look was thought especially suitable for mourning.
• Drape: crêpe is often used for blouses and dresses that need a graceful drape.
• Stretch: the cloth may be stretchy, so it needs care to cut and sew accurately.
• Shrinkage: crêpe shrinks easily with moisture, especially when it contains wool, silk or rayon.
• Heat: synthetic crêpes are heat sensitive and can be crinkled permanently by an iron set too hot.

Why was crêpe worn for mourning?

Crêpe was worn for mourning because its dull, rough black surface suited the plain, unreflective dress that 19th-century Victorian mourning etiquette demanded. In Britain, the V&A notes, correct mourning dress mattered more for social respectability after Prince Albert died in 1861, and a widow's full mourning lasted a year in plain matte black with no jewellery.

The cloth was a crimped fabric, often of worsted and silk. Machine-woven, embossed crêpe imitated the hand-woven Italian crêpes worn by royalty and the aristocracy, and was produced in volume for a broad market. Three firms dominated British production of mourning crêpe in the 19th century, all in the silk-weaving districts of Norfolk and Essex: Hinde; Hardy, Grout and Bayliss; and Samuel Courtauld. That is why the cloth is also called Norwich crêpe. The dress historian Lou Taylor, quoted by the V&A, wrote that mourning crape “above all epitomises the middle-class Victorian widow”.

Few pieces survive. The V&A puts this down to the cloth's fragility and to a belief that keeping crêpe in the house after mourning brought bad luck. Crisp, dull black silk mourning crêpes were still woven in the gum, then treated with heat and chemicals to raise their grooved texture, well into the 20th century.

How is crêpe graded or measured?

Crêpe has no grading scale of its own, so it is judged by three things: the fibre, how the crinkle was made, and the named type of crêpe. The surface can range from a fine, flat grain to pebbled and mossy textures, and some crêpes look like tree bark. The main named types are these.

Britannica also lists Canton crepe, crepe-back satin, marocain, romaine, mossy and rough crepes among the family. None of these names tells you the fibre.

How does crêpe appear on a clothing label?

Crêpe does not appear as a fibre on a clothing label, because it names a fabric structure; the label names the fibre the crêpe is made from.

In the US, most clothing must carry the fibre content, the country of origin and the identity of the manufacturer or another responsible business. Fibres are given by their generic names, as percentages of weight in descending order, so a label reads “100% polyester” or “70% silk, 30% wool”, never “100% crepe”. Fibres under 5% are usually listed as “other fibre”, though one with a definite functional purpose may be named. Trademarks and extra tags must not imply that a garment is made entirely of a fibre it is not.

What the fibre line tells you

Rayon crêpe de Chine is common and can be hard to tell from silk by eye, so the fibre line is the reliable check. A silk and wool blend is not a sign of corner-cutting in crêpe de Chine: a silk warp with a worsted weft is one of its traditional constructions.

How do you tell good crêpe from poor crêpe?

Good crêpe is the fibre you expected, has a texture that will last, and is sewn so its stretch does not distort the seams:

1. Read the fibre line first. A drapey “silk crêpe” that turns out to be rayon or polyester is a different cloth for warmth, care and price. Check the percentages, not the product name.
2. Ask how the crinkle was made. Texture that comes from twisted yarns or a crepe weave is built into the cloth. Chemically embossed crinkle designs, Greene notes, may not be permanent.
3. Feel a loose thread. Untwist a stray weft end from an inside seam allowance. In a twist crêpe it should feel much more tightly twisted than the yarn of an ordinary plain-weave cloth. Crepe-weave and finished crêpes use ordinary yarns, so this check applies only to twist crêpes.
4. Look along the seams and hem. Crêpe can be stretchy and needs care to cut and sew accurately. Seams that ripple, or a hem that dips, show that the stretch was not controlled.
5. Check the care label. Crêpe with wool, silk or rayon shrinks easily when it gets wet, and most crêpe garments are labelled dry clean only. A “machine wash” instruction on such a piece deserves a second look.

Red flags on secondhand crêpe: puckered or shrunken patches around old stains, which home spot-cleaning can cause; and, on synthetic crêpe, unexpected crinkled or glazed patches where an iron set too hot has permanently altered the surface.

How do you care for crêpe?

Care for crêpe by following the label, which in most cases says dry clean only, because the fabric shrinks easily when it gets wet.

• Don't spot-clean at home. Water or stain remover can shrink the cloth just where it is applied. Take stained pieces to a professional cleaner.
• If the label allows washing, use cool water, rinse thoroughly, remove water gently without wringing, and let it air dry. Keep crêpe out of the tumble dryer.
• Restore the shape by blocking: easing the garment back to its measurements as it dries.
• Iron cool, especially on synthetic crêpe.

Is crêpe sustainable?

Crêpe has no sustainability profile of its own: its footprint is that of the fibre it is made from and the finishing it receives. Silk, wool, cotton, rayon and polyester crêpes differ widely, so start with the fibre line and read the entry for that fibre.