What Is Moleskin?

Where does the name moleskin come from?

The name was borrowed from the animal: moleskin first meant the skin of a mole used as fur, and only later a cloth whose surface resembles it. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the fur sense to the 1660s and records moleskin as the name of “a kind of extra strong fustian” from 1803. Merriam-Webster gives 1668 as the earliest date for the fur sense.

The CAMEO materials database of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston also lists fustian as a related term for moleskin fabric. Where and by whom moleskin cloth was first woven is not documented; the earliest firm evidence is the English word itself, in use for the fabric by 1803.

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums holds a pair of men’s moleskin trousers dated to the late 19th or early 20th century, and its catalogue record describes such trousers as commonly used by farm workers, their heavy cloth shielding the wearer from poor weather.

How is moleskin made?

Moleskin is woven densely from cotton in a satin weave, and one face is then brushed to raise a short, soft nap. CAMEO describes it as a sturdy, short-pile fabric in a satin weave, usually made of cotton. Cotton Incorporated explains that the cloth’s structure has floats, yarns that pass over several others before interlacing, and that brushing those floats creates the suede-like surface.

Sources use two words for that surface. Merriam-Webster calls it a “short thick velvety nap” on one side; CAMEO calls it a short pile. Either way, the soft surface is formed from the cloth’s own floating yarns, which Cotton Incorporated says are brushed. Like brushed cotton, moleskin owes that soft face to brushing. Unlike corduroy, moleskin has no ribs; the brushed face is flat and even.

What are the properties of moleskin?

Moleskin is heavy, hard-wearing, soft on one face and slow to crease. Each of those properties is described in the sources below:

• Weight and durability. Merriam-Webster defines the fabric as a “heavy durable cotton fabric”.
• Hand. The brushed face feels velvety and looks like suede, according to Merriam-Webster and Cotton Incorporated. Only one side carries the nap.
• Creasing. Cotton Incorporated states that moleskin does not have a tendency to wrinkle.
• Weather. The Aberdeen museum record credits the heavy cloth with protecting farm workers from poor weather.

Cotton Incorporated calls it a popular sportswear fabric, used for trousers and sport coats. In the plural, “moleskins” also means garments made of the fabric, a sense Merriam-Webster records; the museum and Cotton Incorporated examples are trousers.

How is moleskin graded or measured?

None of the sources here describes a grading system for moleskin, and US and EU labelling law sets fibre names and percentages, not weaves or finishes, so the law requires no moleskin grade.

What you can compare is what the cloth is made of, which the fibre line tells you, and how dense, heavy and evenly brushed it is, which you can judge in the hand. The checks are set out below.

How does moleskin appear on a clothing label?

Moleskin never appears in the fibre content line, because it is a fabric, not a fibre; the label names the fibre it is woven from, usually cotton. The word moleskin belongs in the product description.

Under US rules the label must also give the name or registered identification number (RN) of the manufacturer or of a company that markets or handles the garment, and the country where the garment was processed or manufactured. A cotton moleskin with a little stretch might therefore read “98% cotton, 2% spandex” in the US; in the EU it must use the Annex I name, “98% cotton, 2% elastane”. For what the stretch fibre does, see Lycra and spandex.

How do you tell good moleskin from poor moleskin?

Good moleskin feels heavy and dense, carries its nap on one face only, and lists cotton on the fibre line. Five checks, each based on how the sources describe the cloth:

1. Read the fibre line. Reference works describe moleskin as cotton. If the label shows a synthetic fibre as the main content, it is not the classic cotton cloth that reference works describe, whatever its name.
2. Compare both faces. The nap is on one side. Turn up a hem or look inside a seam allowance: the back should look visibly flatter than the brushed face.
3. Hold a single layer up to a window. Moleskin is a densely woven cloth. Little light should come through; an open, see-through weave does not match the description.
4. Weigh it in your hand. It is defined as a heavy fabric. A cloth that feels thin and light does not match that definition.
5. Squeeze a fold in your fist for a few seconds. Cotton Incorporated notes that moleskin does not tend to wrinkle, so it should relax rather than hold sharp creases.

Red flags

• A “moleskin” with no brushed face at all, or with the same flat surface on both sides.
• For a garment sold in the US, a label that lacks the country of origin or a company name or RN: both are required.
• A fibre line that uses a trade name or an invented word in place of a generic fibre name.

Moleskin and its look-alikes

How do you care for moleskin?

Most cotton moleskin can be spot-cleaned and washed at home, but coats and other structured garments may need occasional dry cleaning. That is Cotton Incorporated’s guidance, and it adds that the care label on the garment has the final word.

Is moleskin sustainable?

Moleskin is a weave and a finish, not a fibre, so the name says nothing about how the cotton was grown or processed.

To judge a particular garment, read the fibre line and any cotton certification it carries; organic cotton is one option to look for. The durability Merriam-Webster ascribes to moleskin is a practical point in its favour, but only if the garment is worn for years.