The Huishan Zhang Fabric Guide: Jacquard, Duchesse, Faille, Sable and Ten More

Huishan Zhang builds garments out of the cloth first. Understand the fabrics and you can predict how any piece in the collection will behave on the night, which is more useful than any amount of looking at photographs. Here are the fourteen that matter, what each one actually is, and what it does to a garment.

The woven decoration

Jacquard — 20 pieces

The pattern is woven into the cloth on the loom, using the punched-card mechanism Joseph Marie Jacquard invented in 1804. Because the design is made of threads rather than ink, it has physical depth and it changes as the light moves across it. This is the single most characteristic Huishan Zhang fabric and the clearest illustration of the house’s whole argument: a jacquard costs several times a printed cloth of the same weight, and it is the reason the pieces look better in a room than on a screen.

Try Patsy Gown in Grey Jacquard, $5,700, and Kyle Dress in Copper Jacquard, $4,760.

Fil coupe

French for cut thread. Extra threads are floated across the weave and then cut by hand, leaving raised motifs with a soft fringed edge on the surface and a characteristic tuft on the reverse. Entirely a hand process after the loom, and priced accordingly.

Cloque — 6 pieces

A permanently blistered surface, made by combining layers that shrink at different rates. The relief is structural, so the fabric carries presence with no pattern at all. It is the quietest way this house adds interest to a plain colour.

Try Kyle Midi Dress in Navy Cloque, $5,320, and Chloe Gown in Navy Cloque, $4,580.

The structural fabrics

Duchesse satin — 13 pieces

Heavy, tightly woven, glossy on the face and matte behind. The most structural satin there is: it holds a shape without a body inside it, which is exactly what you want in a bodice and a standing skirt. It also creases visibly and permanently marks under a pin, so it demands careful handling and hanging storage.

Try Thelma Dress in Blush Duchesse, $9,430, and Raven Gown in Pink Duchesse, $4,390.

Faille

Fine horizontal ribs, lighter than duchesse, with genuine body. Its real virtue is opacity, which is why the house uses it for white and pale dresses that have to survive a camera flash.

Try Madeline Midi Dress in White Faille, $4,950, and Avery Midi Skirt in White Faille, $2,900.

Taffeta

Crisp, slightly papery, and it rustles. Taffeta holds volume away from the body better than almost anything, which is why it is used for full skirts, and it creases sharply, which is why it is not used for anything you sit in for four hours.

Tweed — 25 pieces

A woollen cloth woven from yarn dyed before spinning, which is why the colour has depth and does not fade the way a surface-dyed fabric does. The house uses a fancy tweed, with boucle yarns, lurex and ribbon worked in, rather than the hard country cloth the name originally meant.

The fluid fabrics

Crepe — 34 pieces

A matte fabric with a finely crinkled surface produced by high-twist yarns. It drapes, it moves with the body, it is opaque, it recovers from folding, and it is forgiving of a long evening. The most useful fabric in the collection and the one to choose if you are travelling to the occasion.

Try Astra Midi Dress in Black Crepe, $5,700, and Reign Gown in Black Crepe, $5,320.

Sable — 14 pieces

Dense, matte and silk-faced, with a deep colour and a weighty drape. A fabric, not a fur. It hangs cleanly with no shine, which is why it suits a gown that should look serious rather than glossy.

Chiffon and voile

Sheer, light, and used in layers. Both are worked over a built foundation rather than alone. Chiffon is the lightest thing the house makes and the right answer for daytime heat.

Jersey

Knitted rather than woven, so it stretches. Comfortable, and the least formal of the evening fabrics.

The sheer and decorated

Tulle — 15 pieces

A fine net, used in layers to build volume and as a ground for embellishment. Tulle is unforgiving: every seam and every stitch shows, so it reveals poor construction immediately. A well-made tulle gown is one of the better tests of a house.

Try Augusta Gown in Black Tulle, $6,260, and Micheline Gown in Black Embellished Tulle, $9,430.

Organza — 7 pieces

Sheer but crisp, where tulle is sheer and soft. Organza holds a shape and an edge, so it is used where the house wants sheerness with structure.

Lace — 7 pieces

Decorative openwork, always over a foundation layer in this collection. Lace alone is a shortcut; lace on a built base is what separates an occasion dress from a costume.

The natural fibres

Baby cashmere — 7 pieces

Cashmere combed from a goat’s first fleece, around 13 microns against 15 to 19 for adult cashmere. Finer, shorter and far scarcer, because one young animal yields a fraction of what a grown one does. The price is scarcity, not processing.

Cotton, linen and denim

The daytime half of the collection, and the ground for most of the hand embroidery. An embroidered cotton shirt is the cheapest honest way to own the house technique.

Choosing by behaviour, not by name

Frequently asked questions

What is jacquard?

A fabric whose pattern is woven into the cloth on a loom rather than printed onto it, using a mechanism invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804. Because the design is built from the threads themselves, it has depth and it catches light as the fabric moves, which a printed pattern never does. It is also reversible in a way a print is not, and it does not crack, peel and it will not wash out.

What is duchesse satin?

A heavy, tightly woven satin with a high-lustre face and a matte back, traditionally silk. It is the most structural of the satins: it holds a shape on its own, which is why it is used for bodices and full skirts that need to stand away from the body. It also shows every crease and every pin mark, so it is unforgiving to work with and to store.

What is sable fabric?

A dense, matte, silk-faced weave with a deep colour and a soft, weighty drape. It is a fabric, not fur, and the name refers to the depth of colour rather than to any animal. 14 pieces in the current collection are cut in it. It hangs cleanly without shine, which is why it suits gowns that should not look glossy.

What is faille?

A woven fabric with fine horizontal ribs, lighter than duchesse but with real body. Its usefulness is opacity: a white faille dress stays opaque under a camera flash where a lighter satin would not.

What is fil coupe?

French for cut thread. Extra decorative threads are floated across the surface of the weave and then cut by hand afterwards, leaving small raised motifs with a soft fringed edge. It is labour-intensive and it is one of the reasons a decorated Huishan Zhang piece costs what it does.

What is cloque?

A fabric with a permanently blistered, puckered surface, created by weaving and finishing two layers that shrink at different rates. The relief is structural rather than printed, so it gives a garment presence without any pattern at all.

Which fabric is the most comfortable?

Crepe, by a distance. It is matte, opaque, fluid and forgiving, and it recovers from being folded, which makes it the right choice for travel and for any occasion you will spend sitting down.

Keep reading

• How to care for jacquard, duchesse satin, tweed and cashmere
• The 12 best Huishan Zhang dresses, chosen by fabric
• Huishan Zhang tweed, all 25 pieces
• What Huishan Zhang costs, category by category
• Shop the full Huishan Zhang collection at Coveti