That Flannel Feeling
by Benjamin St George
Flannel, if you’ll excuse the ungainly metaphor, is a cloth that has worn many hats in its time. It’s been associated variously with both fine tailoring and hardy workwear; austerity and rebellion. It’s versatile, is the point, and it’s this versatility that’s made it such a foundational fabric across over three centuries.
Flannel was first woven in Wales, with examples of this hardy, brushed woolen fabric could be found as far back as the 16th Century. It was originally called, very confusingly, “Welsh cotton”; where exactly the name flannel came from is difficult to trace, but the earliest references date back to the 17th Century, when it was known (as it is today) as flanelle in France and flanell in Germany. The cloth is usually (though not always) woven using a twill weave, however its most distinctive qualities are it’s brushed surface, which gives it that distinctive, tactile handle, and its mottled melange finish, achieved by dying the unspun or ‘silver’ wool, rather than traditional yarn-dying.
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