Plate No. 061fabric
The render is a stylized impression of the sheared nap.
- First documented
- 1700s
- Origin
- England, United Kingdom
- Fiber
- cotton
- Weave
- dense satin-faced cotton, sheared nap
- Family
- pile
Plate No. 061 · fabric
Moleskin
Moleskin is a heavy cotton in the fustian family, woven dense with a satin face and then sheared, so the surface is a short, suede-like nap with the softness of mole fur over a nearly windproof cloth. It is the quiet one of the workwear fustians: corduroy cut its pile into ribs, moleskin shaved its pile flat. French and English laborers wore moleskin trousers for two centuries, and the same cloth in finer finishes became country tailoring. The medical sticking plaster called moleskin borrowed the name from the cloth's softness.
Named for
Named for the dense, soft, matte fur of the mole, which the sheared face imitates.