Cambric

Cambric is the fine, smooth, closely woven white linen of Cambrai, the original of the name that later loosened into chambray. Where chambray became a dyed-warp cotton, cambric stayed the crisp white cloth of handkerchiefs, fine shirts, and church linen, calendered to a faint sheen. It shares the soft-fine-cotton territory with batiste and lawn, and the three names have shaded into one another so thoroughly that the distinctions are now as much regional habit as fact. The handkerchief is cambric's monument.