crepe de Chine

/krayp' deuh sheen"/

a light, soft, silk or synthetic fabric with minute irregularities of surface.

[1885-90; < F: lit., crepe from China]

* * *

▪ fabric

also spelled  Crêpe De Chine 

      (French: “crepe of China”), light and fine plainwoven dress fabric produced either with all-silk warp and weft or else with a silk warp and hard-spun worsted weft. A crepe de Chine texture has a slightly crepe character, a feature produced by the use of weft, or filling, yarns spun with the twist running in reverse directions and known as right-hand and left-hand twist, respectively. During weaving, the picks of filling are inserted in the order of “two-and-two” (i.e., with two picks of weft with a right-hand twist and two picks with a left-hand twist).

      During the finishing operation, because of the abnormal amount of twist in the picks of filling, these tend to untwist and recover their normal condition, thereby causing the characteristic effect of typical crepe de Chine. Crepe de Chine textures of artificial silk are common and are often difficult to distinguish from the true silk.

* * *