Plate No. 067 · fabric

Jersey

Jersey is not woven at all: it is a weft knit, a single thread looped through itself row after row, and the render shows that structure, the columns of nested Vs called stockinette. Knitting is what gives jersey the stretch no plain woven cloth can have, and the island of Jersey supplied knitted goods, especially fishermen's sweaters, from the sixteenth century. Coco Chanel scandalized dressmaking by cutting couture from jersey, then the cloth of underwear, and the t-shirt finished the conquest: most of the world now wears jersey most of the time.