Plate No. 040fabric

The natural unbleached color of the fiber.

First documented: Antiquity
Origin: Fertile Crescent, Egypt
Fiber: linen
Weave: plain weave
Family: plain

Plate No. 040 · fabric

Linen

Linen is cloth woven from the fibers of the flax plant, and it is among the oldest textiles in the world. Egypt made it the fabric of priests and of mummy wrappings, prizing the cool, dry hand that still defines it. Flax fibers are hollow and stiff, which is why linen sheds heat, dries quickly, and creases instantly and permanently into the rumple that is now considered part of its charm. The slubs, small thickenings along the yarn, are natural to the fiber and show in the cloth.

Illustration: a flax harvest on the banks of the Nile in ancient Egypt, bundles of flax stalks drying in golden light, workers as distant figures, reed boats on the river — A flax harvest on the banks of the Nile in ancient Egypt, bundles of flax stalks drying in golden light, workers as distant figures, reed boats on the river.

Named for

From the Latin linum and Greek linon, the flax plant itself. The word lives on in line, lining, and lingerie.

In the record

c. 3000 BCEgyptian weavers were producing fine linen for priestly garments and burial wrappings.

Often confused with

Linen vs Seersucker →

From the journal

Woven Air: The Finest Cloth Ever Made →

Sources & References

1.Linen, Wikipedia
2.Linen, Encyclopaedia Britannica

Related specimens

Muslin

fabric · plain

Canvas

fabric · plain

Plain Weave

weave · weaves

Seersucker

fabric · stripes