Silk Taffeta Fabric • Silk Fabric • Polyester Taffeta
Taffeta Fabric
Silk taffeta is one of the oldest luxury fabrics, woven in the early part of the thir century by the Persians, who called it "taftah" or "taftan". Today's version is a fine, smooth, tightly woven fabric with very fine crosswise ribs, made with a plain weave, fine warp yarns and heavier filling yarns. Taffeta looks the same on both sides and has approximately the same number of yarns in both directions. The fabric is flat, with a distinctive rustle and a dull luster. It may be soft or stiff, and light to medium in weight. Fabrics imitating silk taffeta are made from acetate, nylon and polyester.
Taffeta is often fiven a moire finish by passing the fabric through engraved rollers and applying steam, pressure, and/or chemicals. The finished fabric has a wavy or rippled pattern that resembles a water stain or mark, with dull and lustrous areas that relfect light differently. Moire, which is French for "watered", was originally applied to lustrous fabrics of gold, silver and silk as early as the 15th century. Today, it is used on a variety of fabrics and fibers. It is usually permanent on synthetics, but washes out of silks and rayons.
We show weight per square yard for all our silks. With the exception of dupioni,all weights
are expressed in both ounces and mommes.
1 ounce (oz) equals 7.54 mommes (mm).
For more information about mommes, visit our FAQ page.