Textile Industry Glossary

Bast Fibre

Nat­ur­al plant fibres extrac­ted from the stems (phloem) of plants such as flax (lin­en), hemp, jute, kenaf, and ram­ie. Bast fibres offer high tensile strength, low elong­a­tion, and nat­ur­al rigid­ity. Used in appar­el (lin­en), tech­nic­al com­pos­ites, geo­tex­tiles, and pack­aging. Their low-input cul­tiv­a­tion and bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity make them attract­ive for sus­tain­able tex­tile devel­op­ment.

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Geo­tex­tile

Cot­ton

The world’s most import­ant nat­ur­al cel­lu­losic fibre, grown in trop­ic­al and sub­trop­ic­al regions. Cot­ton’s soft­ness, breath­ab­il­ity, absorbency, and dye­ab­il­ity make it the dom­in­ant fibre for appar­el and home tex­tiles. Key pro­du­cing coun­tries include China, India, the USA, Brazil, and Pakistan. Con­ven­tion­al cot­ton cul­tiv­a­tion is resource-intens­ive; organ­ic, BCI (Bet­ter Cot­ton Ini­ti­at­ive), and Fairtrade cer­ti­fied cot­ton address envir­on­ment­al and social con­cerns.

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Gin­ning · Organ­ic Cot­ton · Bast Fibre

Elastane (Span­dex / Lycra™)  EL

A syn­thet­ic poly­ureth­ane-based fibre cap­able of stretch­ing to 500–600% of its ori­gin­al length and recov­er­ing fully. It is rarely used alone but is core-spun or twis­ted with oth­er fibres to add stretch and com­fort to woven, warp-knit­ted, and cir­cu­lar-knit­ted fab­rics for sportswear, swim­wear, linger­ie, and den­im. Recyc­lab­il­ity of elastane-blen­ded fab­rics remains a chal­lenge for cir­cu­lar­ity.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Core-Spun Yarn · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy

Fibre-to-Fibre Recyc­ling

A cir­cu­lar tex­tile pro­cess in which post-con­sumer or post-indus­tri­al tex­tile waste is con­ver­ted back into vir­gin-equi­val­ent fibres. Tech­no­lo­gies include mech­an­ic­al recyc­ling (shredding/reprocessing), chem­ic­al recyc­ling (dis­solv­ing and re-poly­mer­ising), and bio­lo­gic­al recyc­ling. Fibre-to-fibre recyc­ling is cent­ral to the EU Tex­tile Strategy and man­dat­ory EPR frame­works.

See also: Chem­ic­al Recyc­ling · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling · Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy

Gin­ning

The mech­an­ic­al pro­cess of sep­ar­at­ing cot­ton fibres (lint) from the cot­ton seed and plant mat­ter. Mod­ern gin­ning uses saw gins or roller gins depend­ing on cot­ton vari­ety. Gin­ning qual­ity dir­ectly affects fibre length (staple), clean­li­ness, and nep con­tent, which determ­ine yarn qual­ity down­stream. Effi­cient gin­ning is crit­ic­al for pro­du­cing premi­um long-staple cot­ton (e.g. Egyp­tian, Supima, Pima).

See also: Cot­ton · Staple Length · Yarn Count · Card­ing

Lyo­cell

A cel­lu­losic man-made fibre pro­duced from dis­solved wood pulp using a closed-loop solvent spin­ning pro­cess (NMMO solvent), which recov­ers and recir­cu­lates over 99% of the solvent. TENCEL™ is the lead­ing com­mer­cial brand. Lyo­cell is val­ued for its nat­ur­al soft­ness, high wet strength, bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity, and low envir­on­ment­al foot­print com­pared to con­ven­tion­al vis­cose. Widely used in premi­um appar­el, act­ivewear, and non­woven applic­a­tions.

See also: Vis­cose / Ray­on · Closed-Loop Pro­cess · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Man-Made Fibre (MMF)

Man-Made Fibre  MMF

A broad cat­egory encom­passing all fibres pro­duced through indus­tri­al pro­cesses, includ­ing syn­thet­ic fibres (from pet­ro­chem­ic­al poly­mers) and cel­lu­losic man-made fibres such as vis­cose, mod­al, lyo­cell (TENCEL™), and cupro — which are derived from nat­ur­al cel­lu­lose but require chem­ic­al or mech­an­ic­al pro­cessing. MMF accounts for the major­ity of glob­al fibre pro­duc­tion.

See also: Vis­cose / Ray­on · Lyo­cell · Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Cel­lu­losic Fibre

Nat­ur­al Fibre

Fibres derived from nat­ur­al sources — either plant-based (cel­lu­losic) such as cot­ton, lin­en, jute, and hemp, or anim­al-derived (pro­tein-based) such as wool, silk, and cashmere. Nat­ur­al fibres are the raw mater­i­al found­a­tion of tra­di­tion­al tex­tile value chains and are increas­ingly val­ued for their bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity and lower car­bon foot­print com­pared to many syn­thet­ics.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Cot­ton · Wool · Bast Fibre

Poly­am­ide (Nylon)  PA

Com­monly known as nylon, poly­am­ide is a syn­thet­ic poly­mer fibre known for excep­tion­al abra­sion res­ist­ance, elasti­city, and strength-to-weight ratio. Used extens­ively in hosiery, sportswear, swim­wear, ropes, airbags, and tech­nic­al tex­tiles. Key vari­ants include PA 6 (Nylon 6) and PA 6.6 (Nylon 6,6). Bio-based poly­am­ides derived from castor oil (e.g. PA 11) are gain­ing trac­tion as sus­tain­able altern­at­ives.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Elastane

Poly­es­ter  PET

Poly­ethyl­ene tere­ph­thal­ate — the world’s most-pro­duced tex­tile fibre. PET is a ther­mo­plastic poly­mer used to pro­duce fil­a­ment yarns and staple fibres. It is val­ued for its high tenacity, wrinkle res­ist­ance, and low mois­ture absorp­tion. PET is also fully recyc­lable: mech­an­ic­al recyc­ling of post-con­sumer PET bottles and tex­tile waste into rPET fibre is a corner­stone of cir­cu­lar eco­nomy strategies in the appar­el and tech­nic­al tex­tiles sec­tors.

See also: Recycled Poly­es­ter (rPET) · Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling

Recycled Poly­es­ter  rPET

Recycled poly­ethyl­ene tere­ph­thal­ate pro­duced by mech­an­ic­ally or chem­ic­ally recyc­ling post-con­sumer PET bottles or tex­tile waste. rPET reduces depend­ence on vir­gin pet­ro­leum feed­stocks and can lower CO₂ emis­sions by up to 45% com­pared to vir­gin PET. It is widely cer­ti­fied by the Glob­al Recycled Stand­ard (GRS) and Recycled Claim Stand­ard (RCS). Chem­ic­al recyc­ling of tex­tile-to-tex­tile rPET remains an import­ant growth area.

See also: Poly­es­ter (PET) · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling · Chem­ic­al Recyc­ling · Glob­al Recycled Stand­ard

Syn­thet­ic Fibre

Man-made fibres pro­duced from syn­thet­ic poly­mers derived primar­ily from pet­ro­chem­ic­als. The most com­mer­cially sig­ni­fic­ant syn­thet­ic fibres include poly­es­ter (PET), poly­am­ide (nylon), polypro­pyl­ene (PP), and acryl­ic. Syn­thet­ic fibres dom­in­ate glob­al fibre pro­duc­tion by volume and offer tune­able prop­er­ties such as high tenacity, mois­ture man­age­ment, and dimen­sion­al sta­bil­ity.

See also: Poly­es­ter (PET) · Poly­am­ide · Man-Made Fibre (MMF) · Recycled Poly­es­ter

Vis­cose / Ray­on

A semi-syn­thet­ic cel­lu­losic fibre pro­duced by dis­solv­ing wood pulp or cot­ton lin­ters in caustic soda and car­bon disulf­ide, then extrud­ing through spin­ner­ets. Vis­cose offers soft handle, good drape, and mois­ture absorp­tion sim­il­ar to cot­ton, but at lower cost. Envir­on­ment­al con­cerns around the con­ven­tion­al vis­cose pro­cess (chem­ic­al efflu­ents) have driv­en the devel­op­ment of closed-loop lyo­cell and mod­al pro­cesses.

See also: Lyo­cell · Man-Made Fibre (MMF) · Closed-Loop Pro­cess

Wool

A pro­tein fibre derived from the fleece of sheep (and spe­ci­al­ity wools from alpaca, cashmere goats, angora, etc.). Wool’s unique crimp, scale struc­ture, and hygro­scop­ic prop­er­ties give it excep­tion­al insu­la­tion, mois­ture man­age­ment, flame res­ist­ance, and felt­ing abil­ity. The wool sup­ply chain spans shear­ing, scour­ing, card­ing, comb­ing (for worsted yarns), and spin­ning. Key cer­ti­fic­a­tions include ZQ and RWS (Respons­ible Wool Stand­ard).

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Worsted Spin­ning · Scour­ing · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles

Air-Jet Spin­ning

A high-speed yarn spin­ning sys­tem that uses pres­sur­ised air vor­tices to twist fibres around a core. Murata Vor­tex Spin­ning (MVS) is the lead­ing com­mer­cial tech­no­logy. Air-jet yarns have a smooth sur­face, low hair­i­ness, and high pro­ductiv­ity com­par­able to OE spin­ning but with ring-spun-like fab­ric aes­thet­ics. Widely adop­ted for sportswear, shirts, and woven fab­rics.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Open-End Rotor Spin­ning · Yarn Count

Blen­ded Yarn

A yarn pro­duced by mix­ing two or more dif­fer­ent fibre types to com­bine their per­form­ance prop­er­ties. Com­mon blends include polyester/cotton (PC), polyester/viscose (PV), wool/polyester, and cotton/elastane. Blend­ing can improve dur­ab­il­ity, mois­ture man­age­ment, cost effi­ciency, or aes­thet­ics. Fibre sep­ar­a­tion for recyc­ling remains a chal­lenge for blen­ded tex­tiles.

See also: Yarn Count · Fibre-to-Fibre Recyc­ling · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling

Card­ing

A mech­an­ic­al fibre pre­par­a­tion pro­cess using rotat­ing cyl­in­ders covered with fine wire teeth to open, clean, and dis­en­tangle fibres into a uni­form web or sliv­er. In the cot­ton spin­ning sys­tem, card­ing fol­lows blow­room open­ing and pre­cedes draw­ing. Card­ing qual­ity determ­ines sliv­er even­ness, nep levels, and final yarn qual­ity.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Comb­ing · Staple Length · Gin­ning

Comb­ing

A fibre pre­par­a­tion step that removes short fibres (noils), neps, and remain­ing impur­it­ies from a carded sliv­er, leav­ing only longer, aligned fibres. Combed yarns are finer, stronger, and more lus­trous than carded (non-combed) yarns. Used for fine cot­ton shirt­ing fab­rics (Ne 40–120) and for the worsted wool sys­tem.

See also: Card­ing · Ring Spin­ning · Worsted Spin­ning · Staple Length

Com­pact Spin­ning

An enhanced ring spin­ning sys­tem in which fibres are aero­dy­nam­ic­ally con­densed into a nar­row spin­ning tri­angle imme­di­ately before twist­ing. This elim­in­ates loose fibres and reduces yarn hair­i­ness by up to 80%, res­ult­ing in stronger, smooth­er, more lus­trous yarns with high­er weav­ing effi­ciency. Com­pact spun fab­rics have improved pill­ing res­ist­ance and a super­i­or sur­face qual­ity.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Yarn Count · Pill­ing

Core-Spun Yarn

A com­pos­ite yarn struc­ture where a con­tinu­ous fil­a­ment core (typ­ic­ally elastane/spandex or poly­es­ter) is wrapped with staple fibres (cot­ton, poly­es­ter, etc.) dur­ing ring spin­ning. Core-spun yarns com­bine the stretch and recov­ery of the core fil­a­ment with the aes­thet­ics and com­fort of the sheath fibres. Essen­tial for stretch den­im, sportswear, and elast­ic wovens.

See also: Elastane · Ring Spin­ning · Den­im · Stretch Fab­ric

Draw Tex­tur­ing  DTY

Draw Tex­tured Yarn — a poly­es­ter or nylon fil­a­ment yarn that has been sim­ul­tan­eously drawn and false-twist tex­tured to intro­duce crimp, bulk, and stretch. DTY is widely used in fab­rics requir­ing soft­ness and stretch, such as sportswear, warp-knit­ted fab­rics, and cur­tains.

See also: Fil­a­ment Yarn · Warp Knit­ting · Tex­tur­ing

Fil­a­ment Yarn

A yarn com­posed of con­tinu­ous fil­a­ments — either nat­ur­al (silk) or syn­thet­ic (poly­es­ter, nylon, polypro­pyl­ene) — extruded through spin­ner­ets and wound dir­ectly without cut­ting. Fil­a­ment yarns offer high strength, smooth sur­face, and low hair­i­ness. Sub-types include flat fil­a­ment, tex­tured fil­a­ment (DTY), and high-tenacity (HT) yarns.

See also: Tex­tur­ing · Draw Tex­tur­ing (DTY) · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Syn­thet­ic Fibre

Open-End Rotor Spin­ning  OE

A high-pro­duc­tion, dis­con­tinu­ous yarn spin­ning sys­tem where fibres are depos­ited into a rap­idly rotat­ing rotor and twis­ted togeth­er by the rotor wall. OE yarns are bulki­er and softer than ring-spun yarns but have lower strength and are lim­ited to coars­er counts. Widely used for den­im, tow­el­ling, and home tex­tiles. Pro­ductiv­ity is 6–8 times high­er than ring spin­ning.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Yarn Count · Den­im · Com­pact Spin­ning

Ring Spin­ning

The most widely used yarn spin­ning tech­no­logy world­wide. A draf­ted fibre bundle (rov­ing) is twis­ted and wound onto a bob­bin using a trav­el­ler rotat­ing on a ring. Ring-spun yarns are char­ac­ter­ised by high strength, uni­form struc­ture, and smooth sur­face, mak­ing them suit­able for fine to medi­um count appar­el fab­rics.

See also: Open-End Rotor Spin­ning · Com­pact Spin­ning · Yarn Count · Worsted Spin­ning

Staple Length

The aver­age length of indi­vidu­al fibres in a staple yarn. Longer staple length allows finer yarn counts, smooth­er fab­rics, and bet­ter strength. In cot­ton, staple length is meas­ured in inches: short staple (<28mm), medi­um staple, long staple (28–34mm), and extra-long staple/ELS (>34mm, e.g. Supima, Egyp­tian Giza).

See also: Cot­ton · Yarn Count · Gin­ning · Worsted Spin­ning

Worsted Spin­ning

A long-staple spin­ning sys­tem for combed wool, mohair, and oth­er long fibres in which fibres are aligned par­al­lel before spin­ning, pro­du­cing a smooth, strong, fine yarn used in suit­ing, dress fab­rics, and knit­wear. Con­tras­ted with wool­len spin­ning, where fibres remain less aligned for a bulki­er, softer yarn. The worsted pro­cess includes scour­ing, card­ing, comb­ing, gilling, and ring or com­pact spin­ning.

See also: Wool · Ring Spin­ning · Staple Length · Card­ing

Yarn Count

A numer­ic­al expres­sion defin­ing the fine­ness or coarse­ness of a yarn. Two main sys­tems: indir­ect (fixed weight) — e.g. Eng­lish cot­ton count (Ne), where high­er num­bers = finer yarns; and dir­ect (fixed length) — e.g. tex and dtex, where lower num­bers = finer yarns. Yarn count determ­ines fab­ric weight, handle, and the spin­ning sys­tem required.

See also: Ring Spin­ning · Staple Length · Fab­ric Weight (GSM)

Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting

A fab­ric form­a­tion tech­no­logy that uses rotat­ing needle cyl­in­ders to pro­duce seam­less tubu­lar knit­ted fab­rics in one con­tinu­ous pro­cess. Cir­cu­lar knit­ting pro­duces jer­sey, inter­lock, rib, and piqué struc­tures widely used in T‑shirts, under­wear, sportswear, and socks. Machines range from fine-gauge (28–40 needles/inch) for hosiery to coarse-gauge for out­er­wear.

See also: Warp Knit­ting · Fab­ric Weight (GSM) · Gauge (Knit­ting)

Den­im

A dur­able 3×1 twill woven fab­ric, tra­di­tion­ally made from indigo-dyed warp yarns and undyed (ecru) weft yarns. Mod­ern den­im incor­por­ates stretch (elastane core-spun warp), recycled cot­ton, organ­ic cot­ton, and laser/ozone fin­ish­ing to address sus­tain­ab­il­ity demands.

See also: Twill Weave · Core-Spun Yarn · Indigo Dye­ing · Open-End Rotor Spin­ning

Fab­ric Weight  GSM

Grams per square metre — the stand­ard unit for express­ing fab­ric weight. GSM is a key spe­cific­a­tion for fab­ric com­par­is­on, qual­ity con­trol, and cost cal­cu­la­tion across all fab­ric types (woven, knit­ted, non­woven). Typ­ic­al ranges: light­weight (<130 gsm) for shirts and blouses; mid-weight (130–250 gsm) for trousers, den­im, and sweat­shirts; heavy­weight (>250 gsm) for out­er­wear and tech­nic­al fab­rics.

See also: Weav­ing · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Yarn Count · Fab­ric Con­struc­tion

Gauge (Knit­ting)

In knit­ting tech­no­logy, gauge refers to the num­ber of needles per inch on the needle bed or cyl­in­der. High­er gauge = finer needles = finer fab­ric with smal­ler loops. Com­mon gauges: 28 gauge (fine T‑shirt jer­sey), 14–18 gauge (stand­ard hosiery), 5–7 gauge (coarse knit­wear).

See also: Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Warp Knit­ting · Yarn Count

Jacquard

A pro­gram­mable loom con­trol mech­an­ism — inven­ted by Joseph Mar­ie Jacquard (1804) — that allows indi­vidu­al warp thread con­trol to pro­duce com­plex woven pat­terns and figured fab­rics. Mod­ern elec­tron­ic jacquard machines (Stäubli, Bonas, Grosse) can con­trol thou­sands of warp threads inde­pend­ently. Jacquard fab­rics include bro­cade, dam­ask, tapestry, and figured silk fab­rics.

See also: Weav­ing · Warp · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting

Melt­blown

A non­woven pro­cess pro­du­cing ultra-fine fibres (1–5 µm) by extrud­ing a poly­mer melt through a die while sim­ul­tan­eously blow­ing high-velo­city hot air to atten­u­ate the melt stream. Melt­blown fab­rics have excel­lent fil­tra­tion effi­ciency and are the core fil­tra­tion lay­er in N95/FFP2 res­pir­at­ors, sur­gic­al masks, and HEPA fil­ters. Typ­ic­ally sand­wiched between spun­bond lay­ers (SMS struc­ture).

See also: Non­woven · Spun­bond · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Med­ic­al Tex­tiles

Non­woven

A fab­ric-like mater­i­al pro­duced by bond­ing or inter­lock­ing fibres, fil­a­ments, or films through mech­an­ic­al, thermal, or chem­ic­al means — without weav­ing or knit­ting. Pro­duc­tion routes: spun­bond, melt­blown, needle­punch, hydroentan­gle­ment (spun­lace), air­laid, and wet­laid. Non­wovens are used in hygiene products, med­ic­al tex­tiles, fil­tra­tion, geo­tex­tiles, auto­mot­ive, con­struc­tion, and pro­tect­ive wear.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Spun­bond · Melt­blown · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Geo­tex­tile

Plain Weave

The simplest and most com­mon woven fab­ric struc­ture: each weft yarn passes altern­ately over and under each warp yarn, cre­at­ing a 1×1 inter­la­cing pat­tern. Plain weave pro­duces a bal­anced, smooth, and firm fab­ric. Applic­a­tions include shirt­ing, muslin, taf­feta, voile, and most basic appar­el fab­rics.

See also: Weav­ing · Twill Weave · Sat­in Weave · Thread Count

Sat­in Weave

A weave struc­ture in which warp (or weft) yarns float over mul­tiple yarns before inter­la­cing, cre­at­ing long floats that reflect light and pro­duce a smooth, lus­trous sur­face. Stand­ard con­struc­tions: 4‑shaft, 5‑shaft (sateen), and 8‑shaft sat­in. Used for silk sat­in, poly­es­ter sat­in lin­ings, and sateen cot­ton bed­ding.

See also: Weav­ing · Plain Weave · Twill Weave

Spun­bond

A non­woven pro­duc­tion pro­cess in which con­tinu­ous poly­mer fil­a­ments (typ­ic­ally PP or PET) are extruded, drawn by air, laid onto a mov­ing belt, and thermally or chem­ic­ally bon­ded. Spun­bond fab­rics are light­weight, strong, and uni­form. Applic­a­tions include dis­pos­able hygiene, agri­cul­ture, med­ic­al drapes, geo­tex­tiles, and fur­niture back­ing. Often com­bined with melt­blown lay­ers in SMS or SMMS com­pos­ites for fil­tra­tion.

See also: Non­woven · Melt­blown · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles

Thread Count

The num­ber of warp and weft yarns per square inch (or cm) in a woven fab­ric. Thread count is most com­monly used in bed lin­en, shirt­ing, and fine cot­ton fab­rics as a proxy for qual­ity and soft­ness. How­ever, thread count alone does not determ­ine qual­ity — fibre type, yarn count, and weave struc­ture are equally import­ant.

See also: Plain Weave · Cot­ton · Fab­ric Weight (GSM)

Twill Weave

A fun­da­ment­al weave struc­ture in which weft yarns pass over and under warp yarns in a stepped diag­on­al pat­tern, cre­at­ing a char­ac­ter­ist­ic diag­on­al rib or twill line. Twill weaves are stronger and more drape­able than plain weave fab­rics of the same weight. Key applic­a­tions: den­im, gabardine, tweed, chino, drill, and sateen.

See also: Weav­ing · Den­im · Plain Weave · Sat­in Weave

Warp

The set of length­wise yarns held under ten­sion on the loom beam dur­ing weav­ing. Warp yarns must with­stand sig­ni­fic­ant mech­an­ic­al stresses (ten­sion, abra­sion, flex­ing) and are typ­ic­ally stronger, smooth­er, and sized (starched) com­pared to weft yarns. Warp dens­ity (ends per cm) and warp yarn count are key para­met­ers determ­in­ing fab­ric con­struc­tion and handle.

See also: Weav­ing · Weft · Siz­ing · Loom Tech­no­logy

Warp Knit­ting

A warp-feed knit­ting sys­tem pro­du­cing fab­ric in which loops are formed in the wale (length­wise) dir­ec­tion, inter­link­ing adja­cent loops. Key tech­no­lo­gies: Ras­chel and Tricot machines. Warp knit­ted fab­rics are dimen­sion­ally stable, run-res­ist­ant, and can incor­por­ate open lace struc­tures. Applic­a­tions include linger­ie, sportswear, swim­wear, lace, nets, tech­nic­al fab­rics, and med­ic­al tex­tiles.

See also: Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Draw Tex­tur­ing (DTY)

Weav­ing

The inter­la­cing of two per­pen­dic­u­lar sets of yarns — warp (length­wise) and weft (cross­wise) — on a loom to pro­duce a woven fab­ric. The three basic weave struc­tures are plain, twill, and sat­in weave. More com­plex struc­tures (dobby, jacquard) require pro­gram­mable har­ness con­trol. Mod­ern rapi­er, air-jet, and water-jet looms achieve speeds of 600–1,500 picks per minute.

See also: Warp · Weft · Loom Tech­no­logy · Twill Weave · Jacquard

Weft

The set of cross­wise yarns inser­ted across the warp on a loom dur­ing weav­ing. Weft inser­tion is the speed-lim­it­ing step in weav­ing; inser­tion tech­no­lo­gies include shuttle, rapi­er, air-jet, water-jet, and pro­jectile sys­tems. Weft yarn count and dens­ity (picks per cm) influ­ence fab­ric weight, drape, and tex­ture.

See also: Weav­ing · Warp · Loom Tech­no­logy · Fab­ric Weight (GSM)Lor­em ipsum …

Cal­en­der­ing

A mech­an­ic­al fin­ish­ing pro­cess where fab­ric is passed through heavy pres­sure rollers (cal­enders) to com­press, smooth, flat­ten, or emboss the sur­face. Effects achiev­able: glaz­ing, moire/watered effect, schrein­er­ising, chas­ing, emboss­ing. Widely used in shirt fab­rics, indus­tri­al tex­tiles, and non­wovens.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · San­for­iz­ing · Non­woven

Col­our Fast­ness

The res­ist­ance of a dyed or prin­ted tex­tile to col­our change or stain­ing under spe­cif­ic con­di­tions. Key fast­ness tests (ISO/AATCC stand­ards) include: wash­ing fast­ness, rub­bing (crock­ing) fast­ness, light fast­ness, per­spir­a­tion fast­ness, and chlor­ine bleach fast­ness. Fast­ness is rated on a 1–5 grey scale (5 = excel­lent).

See also: React­ive Dye­ing · Dis­perse Dye­ing · Fin­ish­ing · Dye­ing Pro­cess

Dis­perse Dye­ing

The stand­ard dye­ing meth­od for poly­es­ter and oth­er hydro­phobic syn­thet­ic fibres. Dis­perse dyes are water-insol­uble, finely dis­persed particles that migrate into the poly­es­ter fibre under high tem­per­at­ure (130°C) and pres­sure con­di­tions in a jet or beam dye­ing machine. Can also be achieved via sublimation/transfer print­ing at 200°C.

See also: Dye­ing Pro­cess · Col­our Fast­ness · Sub­lim­a­tion Print­ing · Poly­es­ter (PET)

DWR Fin­ish­ing  DWR

Dur­able Water Repel­lency — a chem­ic­al fin­ish applied to tex­tile sur­faces to make water bead and roll off without pen­et­rat­ing the fab­ric. Con­ven­tion­al DWR was based on PFAS (per- and poly­fluoroal­kyl sub­stances). Under EU REACH reg­u­la­tions, PFAS-based DWR is being phased out in favour of flu­or­ine-free DWR (C0 chem­istry) based on dendrimer, wax, or sil­ic­one tech­no­lo­gies.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · PFAS · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Func­tion­al Tex­tiles

Efflu­ent Treat­ment Plant  ETP

The wastewa­ter treat­ment infra­struc­ture required in wet pro­cessing (dye­ing, print­ing, fin­ish­ing) facil­it­ies to remove dyes, chem­ic­als, salts, heavy metals, and organ­ic load before dis­charge. Stand­ard ETP stages: screen­ing, primary set­tling, bio­lo­gic­al treat­ment, chem­ic­al pre­cip­it­a­tion, and ter­tiary pol­ish­ing. Zero Liquid Dis­charge (ZLD) sys­tems rep­res­ent the highest stand­ard for water stew­ard­ship.

See also: React­ive Dye­ing · ZDHC · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Water Foot­print

Fin­ish­ing

All phys­ic­al, chem­ic­al, or bio­lo­gic­al pro­cesses applied to a grey (greige) fab­ric to impart desired prop­er­ties and aes­thet­ics before the final product. Fin­ish­ing can be clas­si­fied as: mech­an­ic­al fin­ish­ing (cal­en­der­ing, rais­ing, san­for­iz­ing, com­pact­ing, emer­ising) and chem­ic­al fin­ish­ing (easy-care, water repellency/DWR, flame retard­ancy, anti­mi­cro­bi­al, soften­ing, stiff­en­ing).

See also: San­for­iz­ing · Mer­cer­isa­tion · Cal­en­der­ing · DWR Fin­ish­ing · PFAS

Indigo Dye­ing

The tra­di­tion­al dye­ing pro­cess for den­im warp yarns using indigo — a vat dye that dyes only the out­er sur­face of cot­ton fibres (ring dye­ing), pro­du­cing the char­ac­ter­ist­ic fade effect of washed den­im. The pro­cess involves repeated dips in a reduced (leuco) indigo bath fol­lowed by air oxid­a­tion. Mod­ern innov­a­tions include foam dye­ing (reduced water use) and bio-based indigo.

See also: Den­im · React­ive Dye­ing · Col­our Fast­ness

Mer­cer­isa­tion

A chem­ic­al fin­ish­ing pro­cess for cot­ton yarns or fab­rics involving treat­ment with a strong caustic soda (NaOH) solu­tion under ten­sion, fol­lowed by wash­ing. Mer­cer­isa­tion causes the cot­ton fibre cross-sec­tion to change from kid­ney-shaped to cir­cu­lar, increas­ing dye uptake, lustre, strength (up to 20%), and dimen­sion­al sta­bil­ity.

See also: Cot­ton · React­ive Dye­ing · Fin­ish­ing

PFAS  PFAS

Per- and Poly­fluoroal­kyl Sub­stances — a large class of syn­thet­ic chem­ic­als char­ac­ter­ised by extremely strong car­bon-flu­or­ine bonds, mak­ing them per­sist­ent, bioac­cu­mu­lat­ive, and broadly harm­ful (‘forever chem­ic­als’). In tex­tiles, PFAS were widely used for DWR, stain-repel­lent, and grease-res­ist­ant fin­ishes. Under EU REACH and increas­ing glob­al reg­u­la­tion, the tex­tile industry is trans­ition­ing to PFAS-free altern­at­ives.

See also: DWR Fin­ish­ing · Fin­ish­ing · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · ZDHC

React­ive Dye­ing

The dom­in­ant dye­ing meth­od for cel­lu­losic fibres (cot­ton, vis­cose, lyo­cell). React­ive dyes form a cova­lent chem­ic­al bond with the hydroxyl groups of cel­lu­lose, pro­du­cing excel­lent wash fast­ness. React­ive dye­ing requires an alkaline fix­a­tion step and is water and chem­ic­al-intens­ive; low-salt, low-water react­ive sys­tems and salt-free pro­cesses are key sus­tain­ab­il­ity tar­gets.

See also: Dye­ing Pro­cess · Col­our Fast­ness · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Efflu­ent Treat­ment

San­for­iz­ing

A mech­an­ic­al pre-shrink­ing fin­ish­ing pro­cess for woven fab­rics (espe­cially cot­ton and den­im) that com­presses the fab­ric length­wise by stretch­ing, dampen­ing, and mech­an­ic­ally com­pact­ing on a rub­ber blanket and heated cyl­in­der. After san­for­iz­ing, resid­ual shrink­age is reduced to <1%, pre­vent­ing unwanted gar­ment shrink­age after home laun­der­ing.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · Den­im · Com­pact­ing

Sub­lim­a­tion Print­ing

A print­ing meth­od using heat and pres­sure to trans­fer dis­perse dye from a paper car­ri­er to a poly­es­ter fab­ric, con­vert­ing the dye from sol­id to gas and back to sol­id with­in the fibre. Res­ults in bright, pho­to­graph­ic-qual­ity prints with excel­lent wash and rub fast­ness. Lim­ited to poly­es­ter and poly­es­ter-coated sub­strates. Widely used in sportswear, soft sig­nage, and per­son­al­ised products.

See also: Dis­perse Dye­ing · Digit­al Print­ing (Tex­tile) · Poly­es­ter (PET)

ZDHC  ZDHC

Zero Dis­charge of Haz­ard­ous Chem­ic­als — an industry ini­ti­at­ive (foun­ded 2011) by major appar­el brands to elim­in­ate haz­ard­ous sub­stances from tex­tile and foot­wear sup­ply chains. The ZDHC Man­u­fac­tur­ing Restric­ted Sub­stances List (MRSL) defines sub­stances restric­ted from use in pro­duc­tion. ZDHC Wastewa­ter Guidelines set efflu­ent qual­ity bench­marks.

See also: Efflu­ent Treat­ment (ETP) · Fin­ish­ing · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · PFAS

Auto­mot­ive Tex­tiles

Tex­tile mater­i­als used in vehicles — approx­im­ately 20–35 kg of tex­tile is incor­por­ated per car in the form of seat uphol­stery, head­liners, door pan­els, car­pet­ing, airbags, seat­belts, tyre cord, belt drives, and fil­ters. The shift to elec­tric vehicles (EV) is driv­ing demand for new light­weight com­pos­ite and acous­tic man­age­ment tex­tiles.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Com­pos­ite Tex­tiles · Flame Retard­ant Tex­tiles

Coat­ing & Lam­in­a­tion

Coat­ing applies a lay­er of poly­mer (PU, PVC, acrylate, sil­ic­one) dir­ectly onto a fab­ric sur­face. Lam­in­a­tion bonds a pre­formed film or mem­brane (e.g. PTFE, PU) to a base fab­ric. Both tech­niques cre­ate bar­ri­ers to water, wind, flame, chem­ic­als, or bio­lo­gic­al agents while retain­ing tex­tile flex­ib­il­ity. Key applic­a­tions: out­door wear (water­proof-breath­able mem­branes), tar­paul­ins, inflat­ables, and pro­tect­ive work­wear.

See also: Fin­ish­ing · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · DWR Fin­ish­ing · Pro­tect­ive Cloth­ing

Com­pos­ite Tex­tiles

Mater­i­als in which tex­tile rein­force­ment struc­tures (woven, knit­ted, non­woven, or braided fab­rics of glass, car­bon, ara­m­id, or basalt fibres) are com­bined with a poly­mer mat­rix to pro­duce high-per­form­ance struc­tur­al mater­i­als. Tex­tile-rein­forced com­pos­ites offer super­i­or strength-to-weight ratios and are crit­ic­al in aerospace, auto­mot­ive, wind energy, and sports equip­ment.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Bast Fibre · Smart Tex­tiles

Elec­tro­spin­ning

A pro­cess using a high-voltage elec­tric field to draw poly­mer solu­tions or melts into ultra-fine nan­ofibres (50–500 nm dia­met­er) depos­ited on a col­lect­or sub­strate. Elec­tro­spun nan­ofibres exhib­it extremely high sur­face area-to-volume ratios, enabling super­i­or fil­tra­tion, drug deliv­ery, wound heal­ing, and mem­brane applic­a­tions.

See also: Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Med­ic­al Tex­tiles · Non­woven · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles

Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles

Tex­tile struc­tures (woven, non­woven, knit­ted) designed to sep­ar­ate particles or con­tam­in­ants from gases or liquids. Applic­a­tions span indus­tri­al air fil­tra­tion, liquid fil­tra­tion, clean rooms, HVAC, auto­mot­ive cab­in air, and res­pir­at­ory pro­tec­tion (FFP2/N95). Melt­blown and elec­tro­spun nan­ofibres enable high-effi­ciency sub-micron fil­tra­tion.

See also: Non­woven · Melt­blown · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Med­ic­al Tex­tiles

Flame Retard­ant Tex­tiles  FR

Tex­tiles treated or man­u­fac­tured to meet fire res­ist­ance stand­ards for pro­tect­ive cloth­ing, home fur­nish­ings, con­tract fur­nish­ings, trans­port, and indus­tri­al applic­a­tions. FR per­form­ance is achieved by inher­ent FR fibres (ara­m­id, modac­ryl­ic, FR poly­es­ter, FR vis­cose) or chem­ic­al FR fin­ishes (phos­phor­us-based, nitro­gen-based com­pounds). Key stand­ards: EN 11611/11612, EN 1021, NFPA 701.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Pro­tect­ive Cloth­ing · Fin­ish­ing · PFAS

Geo­tex­tile

Per­meable tex­tile mater­i­als used in civil engin­eer­ing, con­struc­tion, and envir­on­ment­al applic­a­tions to sep­ar­ate, fil­ter, rein­force, pro­tect, or drain soil and sub-base lay­ers. Pro­duced from woven polypro­pyl­ene, poly­es­ter, or non­woven needle­punched fab­rics. Key applic­a­tions: road and rail­way con­struc­tion, embank­ment sta­bil­isa­tion, coastal pro­tec­tion, land­fill lin­ing, and erosion con­trol.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Non­woven · Bast Fibre

High-Per­form­ance Fibre

Fibres with excep­tion­al mech­an­ic­al, thermal, or chem­ic­al per­form­ance bey­ond con­ven­tion­al tex­tile fibres. Key examples: para-ara­m­id (Kevlar®, Twaron®) — cut/ballistic res­ist­ance; meta-ara­m­id (Nomex®) — flame/heat res­ist­ance; UHMWPE (Dyneema®, Spec­tra®) — highest spe­cif­ic strength fibre; car­bon fibre — aerospace/automotive com­pos­ites.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Com­pos­ite Tex­tiles · Flame Retard­ant Tex­tiles

Med­ic­al Tex­tiles

Tex­tile products designed for health­care, hygiene, and med­ic­al applic­a­tions, includ­ing wound dress­ings, sur­gic­al meshes, sutures, implants, com­pres­sion hosiery, hygiene non­wovens (diapers, wipes), and pro­tect­ive gar­ments. Must com­ply with strict biocom­pat­ib­il­ity, ster­il­ity, and reg­u­lat­ory stand­ards (EU MDR 2017/745, ISO 10993).

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Non­woven · Melt­blown · Smart Tex­tiles

Pro­tect­ive Cloth­ing

Per­son­al pro­tect­ive equip­ment (PPE) in tex­tile form, designed to pro­tect work­ers from phys­ic­al, chem­ic­al, bio­lo­gic­al, thermal, or elec­tric­al haz­ards. Cat­egor­ies (EU PPE Reg­u­la­tion 2016/425): cut-res­ist­ant, chem­ic­al-res­ist­ant, flame-retard­ant, high-vis­ib­il­ity, anti-stat­ic, bal­list­ic, and bio­lo­gic­al pro­tec­tion.

See also: Flame Retard­ant Tex­tiles · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Fin­ish­ing

Smart Tex­tiles

Tex­tiles that can sense, react, adapt, or com­mu­nic­ate in response to envir­on­ment­al stim­uli (tem­per­at­ure, pres­sure, elec­tri­city, light, mois­ture). Tech­no­lo­gies: con­duct­ive yarns, embed­ded sensors, phase-change mater­i­als (PCM), elec­tro­lu­min­es­cence, energy har­vest­ing, and wash­able elec­tron­ics. Key mar­kets: sportswear, health­care mon­it­or­ing, defence, and wear­able tech­no­logy.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Func­tion­al Tex­tiles · Med­ic­al Tex­tiles

Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles

Tex­tile products man­u­fac­tured primar­ily for func­tion­al per­form­ance rather than aes­thet­ic prop­er­ties. Tech­nic­al tex­tiles serve indus­tri­al, med­ic­al, agri­cul­tur­al, auto­mot­ive, con­struc­tion, and pro­tect­ive applic­a­tions. The 12 mar­ket seg­ments (Tech­tex­til clas­si­fic­a­tion) include: Agro­tech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Homet­ech, Indutech, Medtech, Mobil­tech, Oekotech, Pack­tech, Pro­tech, and Sportech.

See also: Non­woven · Geo­tex­tile · Med­ic­al Tex­tiles · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Smart Tex­tiles

Tensile Struc­tures

Archi­tec­tur­al mem­brane struc­tures that use high-tenacity woven or coated tech­nic­al fab­rics under ten­sion to cre­ate large-span, light­weight enclos­ures (sta­di­ums, air­ports, can­op­ies, exhib­i­tion halls). Mater­i­als: PVC-coated poly­es­ter, PTFE-coated glass fibre (Sheer­fill®), and ETFE foil. Design requires spe­cial­ist engin­eer­ing for pre-stress, mem­brane cut­ting pat­terns, and anchor­age.

See also: Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles · Coat­ing & Lam­in­a­tion · High-Per­form­ance Fibre

Bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity

The abil­ity of a mater­i­al to be broken down by microor­gan­isms under spe­cif­ic con­di­tions (aer­obic or anaer­obic, indus­tri­al com­post­ing or home com­post­ing, mar­ine con­di­tions) into water, CO₂, and bio­mass. Nat­ur­al fibres (cot­ton, wool, lin­en) are inher­ently bio­de­grad­able. Most syn­thet­ic fibres are not bio­de­grad­able in stand­ard envir­on­ments.

See also: Nat­ur­al Fibre · Lyo­cell · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity

Bluesign

An inde­pend­ent tex­tile industry stand­ard and part­ner net­work that cer­ti­fies chem­ic­als, pro­cesses, and products accord­ing to strict cri­ter­ia for resource pro­ductiv­ity, con­sumer safety, water and air emis­sion lim­its, and occu­pa­tion­al health and safety. Widely adop­ted by out­door and sportswear brands (Patago­nia, The North Face, etc.).

See also: GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stand­ard) · ZDHC · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity

Car­bon Foot­print  CO₂e

The total green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions asso­ci­ated with a product, com­pany, or activ­ity, expressed in CO₂ equi­val­ents. In tex­tiles, Scope 1, 2, and 3 emis­sions must be repor­ted under frame­works like the GHG Pro­tocol, CDP, and Sci­ence Based Tar­gets ini­ti­at­ive (SBTi). Fibre pro­duc­tion, dyeing/wet pro­cessing, and con­sumer laun­der­ing are the most car­bon-intens­ive life­cycle stages.

See also: Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA) · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Recycled Poly­es­ter (rPET)

Chem­ic­al Recyc­ling

Advanced recyc­ling pro­cesses that break down tex­tile poly­mer chains to monomer or oli­gomer level for re-poly­mer­isa­tion into vir­gin-equi­val­ent fibre. Key tech­no­lo­gies: gly­co­lys­is and hydro­lys­is (PET to BHET/TPA/EG monomers), solvent dis­sol­u­tion (cel­lu­lose — Ion­cell, Spin­nova), enzymat­ic hydro­lys­is (cot­ton to gluc­ose), and pyro­lys­is. Can handle mixed/blended fab­rics and col­oured waste.

See also: Fibre-to-Fibre Recyc­ling · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling · Poly­es­ter (PET) · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy

Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy

An eco­nom­ic mod­el that replaces the tra­di­tion­al take-make-dis­pose lin­ear mod­el with closed-loop sys­tems that keep mater­i­als, fibres, and products in use at their highest value for as long as pos­sible. In tex­tiles, cir­cu­lar­ity involves design­ing for dur­ab­il­ity, repair­ab­il­ity, and recyc­lab­il­ity; col­lect­ing and sort­ing post-con­sumer gar­ments; and recyc­ling fibres back into new tex­tile products.

See also: Fibre-to-Fibre Recyc­ling · Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling · Chem­ic­al Recyc­ling

Digit­al Product Pass­port  DPP

A digit­al record — man­dated under the EU Eco­design for Sus­tain­able Products Reg­u­la­tion (ESPR) — that con­tains product-level sus­tain­ab­il­ity and trace­ab­il­ity data access­ible via a QR code on the product label. For tex­tiles, the DPP will include: mater­i­al com­pos­i­tion, recycled con­tent, coun­try of ori­gin, cer­ti­fic­a­tions, repair­ab­il­ity, and end-of-life instruc­tions. Full imple­ment­a­tion for tex­tiles is expec­ted by 2027.

See also: EU Tex­tile Strategy · Trace­ab­il­ity · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity (EPR)

EU Tex­tile Strategy

The EU Strategy for Sus­tain­able and Cir­cu­lar Tex­tiles (adop­ted March 2022) sets tar­gets for the EU tex­tile industry to become more dur­able, repair­able, reusable, recyc­lable, and free of haz­ard­ous sub­stances by 2030. Key policy instru­ments: the Eco­design for Sus­tain­able Products Reg­u­la­tion (ESPR), man­dat­ory EPR, min­im­um recycled con­tent require­ments, Digit­al Product Pass­port (DPP), and a ban on destruc­tion of unsold gar­ments.

See also: Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity (EPR) · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Digit­al Product Pass­port

Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity  EPR

A policy instru­ment that holds pro­du­cers (brands, man­u­fac­tur­ers, import­ers) fin­an­cially or oper­a­tion­ally respons­ible for the end-of-life man­age­ment of their products. In tex­tiles, EPR requires pro­du­cers to fin­ance col­lec­tion, sort­ing, and recyc­ling infra­struc­ture for post-con­sumer gar­ments. France was the first coun­try to imple­ment tex­tile EPR (Refash­ion, 2007). The EU Tex­tile Strategy man­dates EU-wide har­mon­ised EPR sys­tems.

See also: Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Fibre-to-Fibre Recyc­ling · Post-Con­sumer Waste · EU Tex­tile Strategy

Glob­al Recycled Stand­ard  GRS

An inter­na­tion­al, vol­un­tary stand­ard admin­istered by Tex­tile Exchange that veri­fies and cer­ti­fies the con­tent, chain of cus­tody, social and envir­on­ment­al pro­cessing prac­tices, and chem­ic­al restric­tions for recycled mater­i­als in tex­tile products. GRS applies to all recycled mater­i­als from any source (pre-con­sumer or post-con­sumer).

See also: Recycled Poly­es­ter (rPET) · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling · GOTS · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity

GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stand­ard)  GOTS

The world’s lead­ing pro­cessing stand­ard for organ­ic fibres, cov­er­ing the entire post-har­vest pro­cessing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, pack­aging, labelling, trad­ing, and dis­tri­bu­tion of tex­tiles. GOTS requires a min­im­um of 70% cer­ti­fied organ­ic fibres (GOTS label) or 95% (GOTS organ­ic label), and sets strict require­ments on chem­ic­al inputs, wastewa­ter treat­ment, and social cri­ter­ia.

See also: Cot­ton · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Glob­al Recycled Stand­ard (GRS) · Bluesign

Gre­en­wash­ing

The prac­tice of mak­ing mis­lead­ing, unsub­stan­ti­ated, or exag­ger­ated sus­tain­ab­il­ity claims about a product, ser­vice, or com­pany. In tex­tiles, gre­en­wash­ing includes vague claims (‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘sus­tain­able’), mis­lead­ing recycled con­tent claims, and unveri­fied cer­ti­fic­a­tions. The EU Green Claims Dir­ect­ive aims to require sub­stan­ti­ation and third-party veri­fic­a­tion for all sus­tain­ab­il­ity claims.

See also: Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · EU Tex­tile Strategy · Trace­ab­il­ity · Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA)

Higg Index

A suite of self-assess­ment tools developed by the Sus­tain­able Appar­el Coali­tion (SAC) to meas­ure and score the envir­on­ment­al and social sus­tain­ab­il­ity per­form­ance of appar­el and foot­wear com­pan­ies and products. Key mod­ules: Higg FEM (Facil­ity Envir­on­ment­al Mod­ule) and Higg MSI (Mater­i­als Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Index).

See also: Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA) · Car­bon Foot­print

Life Cycle Assess­ment  LCA

A stand­ard­ised meth­od­o­logy (ISO 14040/44) for quan­ti­fy­ing the envir­on­ment­al impacts of a product, pro­cess, or ser­vice across its full life cycle — from raw mater­i­al extrac­tion through pro­duc­tion, use, and end-of-life (cradle-to-grave). Key impact cat­egor­ies: glob­al warm­ing poten­tial (CO₂e), water con­sump­tion, eutroph­ic­a­tion, land use, and human tox­icity.

See also: Car­bon Foot­print · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Higg Index

Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling

The recyc­ling of post-con­sumer or post-indus­tri­al tex­tile waste by phys­ic­al pro­cesses (shred­ding, gar­net­ting, card­ing) that break fibres down without chem­ic­al dis­sol­u­tion. Mech­an­ic­al recyc­ling is low-cost and energy-effi­cient but pro­duces short­er fibres that typ­ic­ally require blend­ing with vir­gin fibre to main­tain yarn qual­ity.

See also: Fibre-to-Fibre Recyc­ling · Chem­ic­al Recyc­ling · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Blen­ded Yarn

Micro­plastics

Plastic particles <5mm released from syn­thet­ic tex­tile products dur­ing wash­ing, wear, and end-of-life dis­pos­al. Syn­thet­ic fab­rics (poly­es­ter, nylon, acryl­ic) shed microfibre particles in every wash cycle — estim­ated at 700,000 microfibres per 6kg wash. Solu­tions include wash­ing fil­ters (Guppy­friend bag, Plan­et­Care fil­ters), fibre engin­eer­ing, and legis­lat­ive con­trols.

See also: Syn­thet­ic Fibre · Poly­es­ter (PET) · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · Water Foot­print

Organ­ic Cot­ton

Cot­ton grown without syn­thet­ic pesti­cides, herb­i­cides, or chem­ic­al fer­til­isers, in com­pli­ance with organ­ic farm­ing stand­ards. Cer­ti­fied by GOTS, OCS (Organ­ic Con­tent Stand­ard), and nation­al organ­ic reg­u­la­tions. Organ­ic cot­ton farm­ing reduces chem­ic­al expos­ure for farm­ers and water­ways and sup­ports biod­iversity. Glob­al organ­ic cot­ton pro­duc­tion accounts for roughly 1% of total cot­ton pro­duc­tion.

See also: Cot­ton · GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stand­ard) · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity

Post-Con­sumer Waste  PCW

Mater­i­als that have com­pleted their inten­ded use by a con­sumer and have been dis­carded or col­lec­ted for recyc­ling. In tex­tiles, PCW includes used gar­ments, house­hold tex­tiles, and foot­wear col­lec­ted through sep­ar­ate waste col­lec­tion, take-back pro­grammes, and used cloth­ing mar­kets. Con­tras­ted with pre-con­sumer (post-indus­tri­al) waste.

See also: Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Glob­al Recycled Stand­ard (GRS) · Mech­an­ic­al Recyc­ling · Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity (EPR)

Trace­ab­il­ity

The abil­ity to veri­fy and doc­u­ment the ori­gin, pro­cessing, and move­ment of mater­i­als and products across the tex­tile sup­ply chain. Trace­ab­il­ity sys­tems use phys­ic­al tracers (iso­top­ic mark­ers, DNA fibres), digit­al tools (block­chain, QR codes), and third-party audits. The EU Digit­al Product Pass­port and CSDDD are accel­er­at­ing trace­ab­il­ity adop­tion.

See also: Digit­al Product Pass­port (DPP) · Sup­ply Chain · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity · GOTS

Water Foot­print

A meas­ure of fresh­wa­ter con­sump­tion and pol­lu­tion asso­ci­ated with the pro­duc­tion of a product. Cot­ton pro­duc­tion and wet tex­tile pro­cessing are among the most water-intens­ive man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­it­ies. 1 kg of cot­ton fibre requires approx­im­ately 10,000–20,000 litres of water under con­ven­tion­al grow­ing con­di­tions.

See also: Cot­ton · Life Cycle Assess­ment (LCA) · Efflu­ent Treat­ment (ETP) · Sus­tain­ab­il­ity

CMT (Cut, Make, Trim)  CMT

A gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing mod­el in which the buy­er sup­plies all mater­i­als (fab­ric, trims, accessor­ies) and the fact­ory charges only for cut­ting, mak­ing, and trim­ming (fin­ish­ing). CMT is com­mon in Bangladesh and Cam­bod­ia. Con­trast with FOB (fact­ory sources mater­i­als and deliv­ers fin­ished goods at port) and Full Package/turnkey man­u­fac­tur­ing.

See also: Ready-Made Gar­ment (RMG) · FOB · Sourcing · Value Chain

Fast Fash­ion

A busi­ness mod­el that trans­lates cat­walk trends rap­idly into mass-mar­ket gar­ments at low prices, with high turnover of col­lec­tions (from 2 seasons/year to 52+ micro-sea­sons). Fast fash­ion relies on agile sourcing, speed-to-mar­ket, and low-cost man­u­fac­tur­ing. The EU Tex­tile Strategy and EPR dir­ectly tar­get fast fash­ion extern­al­it­ies.

See also: Lead Time · Sourcing · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Exten­ded Pro­du­cer Respons­ib­il­ity (EPR)

FOB (Free On Board)  FOB

An inter­na­tion­al trade term (Incoterm) defin­ing the point at which risk and respons­ib­il­ity for goods trans­fer from seller to buy­er. Under FOB, the seller is respons­ible for all costs and risks up to load­ing goods aboard the ves­sel at the named port of ship­ment. In appar­el sourcing, FOB typ­ic­ally means the fact­ory sources mater­i­als, pro­duces the fin­ished gar­ments, and deliv­ers to the export port.

See also: CMT (Cut, Make, Trim) · Sourcing · Lead Time · Sup­ply Chain

Lead Time

The total elapsed time from order place­ment to product deliv­ery in the tex­tile and appar­el sup­ply chain. Lead times vary by product type: stand­ard woven appar­el: 90–120 days; fast fash­ion: 14–28 days; on-demand/di­git­al print: <7 days. Lead time reduc­tion is achieved through sup­pli­er prox­im­ity (nearshor­ing), digit­al sampling, fab­ric plat­form­ing, and demand-respons­ive man­u­fac­tur­ing.

See also: Sourcing · Sup­ply Chain · Nearshor­ing · Fast Fash­ion

Logist­ics & Freight

The plan­ning, exe­cu­tion, and man­age­ment of the phys­ic­al move­ment of tex­tiles and gar­ments from ori­gin to des­tin­a­tion. Key modes: ocean freight (dom­in­ant for long-haul), air freight (high speed/cost), rail (grow­ing EU-China cor­ridor), road. Decar­bon­isa­tion of freight (bio­fuels, e‑fuels, elec­tric vehicles) is a key Scope 3 chal­lenge.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Lead Time · Car­bon Foot­print · Sourcing

Mass Bal­ance

A chain-of-cus­tody mod­el for cer­ti­fied sus­tain­able mater­i­als in which cer­ti­fied mater­i­al inputs and out­puts are tracked across a pro­duc­tion site but not phys­ic­ally segreg­ated. The cer­ti­fied volume sold must not exceed the cer­ti­fied volume pur­chased with­in an account­ing peri­od. Enables cer­ti­fied con­tent claims at scale without oper­a­tion­al segreg­a­tion.

See also: GOTS (Glob­al Organ­ic Tex­tile Stand­ard) · Glob­al Recycled Stand­ard (GRS) · Trace­ab­il­ity

Nearshor­ing

The stra­tegic relo­ca­tion of man­u­fac­tur­ing closer to the tar­get mar­ket, redu­cing geo­graph­ic dis­tance and sup­ply chain risk com­pared to dis­tant off­shor­ing (e.g. mov­ing from South­east Asia to Tur­key, North Africa, or East­ern Europe for EU mar­kets). Nearshor­ing offers short­er lead times, lower freight costs and emis­sions, reduced invent­ory, and improved respons­ive­ness to mar­ket trends.

See also: Sourcing · Lead Time · Sup­ply Chain · Value Chain

On-Demand Man­u­fac­tur­ing

A pro­duc­tion mod­el where gar­ments are only man­u­fac­tured after an order is placed, elim­in­at­ing over­pro­duc­tion and unsold invent­ory. Enabled by digit­al print­ing, auto­mated cut­ting (CAD/CAM), and flex­ible sew­ing cells. On-demand reduces waste and cap­it­al tied in stock but requires high­er unit costs and fast ful­fil­ment infra­struc­ture.

See also: Fast Fash­ion · Lead Time · Digit­al Print­ing · Sup­ply Chain

Ready-Made Gar­ment  RMG

Fin­ished appar­el and cloth­ing products pro­duced in factor­ies for sale to con­sumers. The RMG industry is the down­stream end of the tex­tile value chain and is con­cen­trated in Bangladesh, China, Viet­nam, India, Cam­bod­ia, and Pakistan. GHERZI cov­ers the full chain ‘from fibre/polymer to fin­ished RMG and back’.

See also: CMT · Sourcing · Sup­ply Chain · Value Chain

Social Com­pli­ance

The adher­ence of tex­tile factor­ies and sup­pli­ers to min­im­um labour and human rights stand­ards — includ­ing fair wages, safe work­ing con­di­tions, free­dom of asso­ci­ation, pro­hib­i­tion of forced and child labour, and reas­on­able work­ing hours. Key frame­works: SA8000, BSCI (amfori BSCI), SMETA (Sedex Mem­bers Eth­ic­al Trade Audit), ILO Core Con­ven­tions.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Sourcing · Trace­ab­il­ity · Value Chain

Sourcing

The pro­cess by which appar­el brands and retail­ers identi­fy, eval­u­ate, and engage sup­pli­ers (fab­ric mills, trims sup­pli­ers, CMT/FOB factor­ies) to ful­fil their product require­ments at the right qual­ity, cost, lead time, and com­pli­ance level. Post-pan­dem­ic, sup­ply chain resi­li­ence and sup­pli­er diver­si­fic­a­tion have become crit­ic­al sourcing pri­or­it­ies.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Lead Time · CMT (Cut, Make, Trim) · Value Chain Man­age­ment

Sup­ply Chain

The net­work of organ­isa­tions, people, activ­it­ies, inform­a­tion, and resources involved in cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing a tex­tile product — from raw mater­i­al sup­pli­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers to logist­ics pro­viders, dis­trib­ut­ors, and retail­ers. Sup­ply chain trans­par­ency, resi­li­ence, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, and digit­isa­tion are cent­ral chal­lenges for the industry.

See also: Value Chain · Sourcing · Trace­ab­il­ity · Nearshor­ing

Techno-Eco­nom­ic Feas­ib­il­ity

A sys­tem­at­ic apprais­al com­bin­ing tech­nic­al viab­il­ity ana­lys­is (pro­cess selec­tion, capa­city, equip­ment, site require­ments) and eco­nom­ic ana­lys­is (CAPEX, OPEX, cash flow pro­jec­tions, IRR, NPV, pay­back peri­od) to determ­ine wheth­er a pro­posed tex­tile invest­ment is tech­nic­ally sound and fin­an­cially attract­ive.

See also: Value Chain · Tex­tile Sec­tor Study · Sup­ply Chain

Tex­tile Sec­tor Study

A struc­tured mar­ket research and ana­lys­is exer­cise assess­ing a nation­al or region­al tex­tile industry’s com­pet­it­ive pos­i­tion, value chain struc­ture, capa­city, mar­ket access, labour costs, and devel­op­ment oppor­tun­it­ies. Com­mis­sioned by devel­op­ment fin­ance insti­tu­tions (IFC, GIZ, UNIDO), gov­ern­ments, and invest­ment funds. GHERZI has con­duc­ted tex­tile sec­tor stud­ies in over 80 coun­tries since 1929.

See also: Value Chain · Mar­ket Ana­lys­is · Sup­ply Chain · Feas­ib­il­ity Study

Value Chain

The end-to-end sequence of activ­it­ies that trans­forms raw mater­i­als into fin­ished tex­tile and appar­el products: fibre pro­duc­tion → spin­ning → fab­ric form­a­tion → dye­ing & fin­ish­ing → gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing → retail → con­sumer use → end-of-life. GHERZ­I’s expert­ise cov­ers the com­plete tex­tile value chain — ‘from fibre/polymer to fin­ished RMG and back’.

See also: Sup­ply Chain · Ready-Made Gar­ment (RMG) · Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy · Sourcing

Brand & Licens­ing

The strategy of lever­aging an estab­lished brand name, trade­mark, or tech­no­logy to gen­er­ate rev­en­ue through licens­ing agree­ments. In tech­nic­al tex­tiles, ingredi­ent brand­ing (Gore-Tex®, TENCEL™, Lycra®, Prim­aloft®) adds value to end products. In appar­el, brand licens­ing allows expan­sion into new geo­graph­ies or product cat­egor­ies.

See also: Strategy Devel­op­ment · Mar­ket Ana­lys­is · Value Chain

Digit­al­isa­tion

The integ­ra­tion of digit­al tech­no­lo­gies across tex­tile and appar­el value chain pro­cesses — from design and product devel­op­ment (3D vir­tu­al sampling, PLM) to man­u­fac­tur­ing (IoT, auto­ma­tion, AI qual­ity con­trol), sup­ply chain (trace­ab­il­ity plat­forms, block­chain) and retail (e‑commerce, demand fore­cast­ing, AI per­son­al­isa­tion).

See also: Strategy Devel­op­ment · Digit­al Product Pass­port (DPP) · Trace­ab­il­ity · Smart Tex­tiles

Due Dili­gence (M&A)

A com­pre­hens­ive apprais­al of a tex­tile com­pany’s assets, liab­il­it­ies, oper­a­tions, tech­no­logy, mar­ket pos­i­tion, and ESG per­form­ance con­duc­ted pri­or to a mer­ger, acquis­i­tion, or invest­ment trans­ac­tion. Key areas include: machinery con­di­tion and valu­ation, energy and water intens­ity bench­mark­ing, envir­on­ment­al liab­il­it­ies, qual­ity man­age­ment sys­tems, and work­force struc­ture.

See also: Feas­ib­il­ity Study · Mar­ket Ana­lys­is · Oper­a­tion­al Improve­ment

Feas­ib­il­ity Study

A sys­tem­at­ic pre-invest­ment ana­lys­is examin­ing the viab­il­ity of a pro­posed tex­tile pro­ject across tech­nic­al, fin­an­cial, mar­ket, envir­on­ment­al, and social dimen­sions. Key out­puts: pro­ject descrip­tion and capa­city plan, mar­ket assess­ment, tech­no­logy selec­tion, site eval­u­ation, fin­an­cial mod­el (IRR, NPV, pay­back), risk ana­lys­is, and recom­mend­a­tion.

See also: Techno-Eco­nom­ic Feas­ib­il­ity · Mar­ket Ana­lys­is · Strategy Devel­op­ment

Mar­ket Ana­lys­is

The sys­tem­at­ic exam­in­a­tion of mar­ket size, struc­ture, com­pet­it­ive land­scape, cus­tom­er seg­ments, pri­cing, and growth trends in a tex­tile or appar­el mar­ket. GHERZ­I’s mar­ket ana­lys­is ser­vices cov­er fibre-to-retail mar­ket intel­li­gence, coun­try-spe­cif­ic mar­ket entry assess­ments, and com­pet­it­ive bench­mark­ing.

See also: Tex­tile Sec­tor Study · Value Chain · Sourcing · Strategy Devel­op­ment

Oper­a­tion­al Improve­ment

Sys­tem­at­ic enhance­ment of man­u­fac­tur­ing and oper­a­tion­al effi­ciency in tex­tile facil­it­ies through lean man­u­fac­tur­ing, OEE improve­ment (Over­all Equip­ment Effect­ive­ness), Six Sigma, 5S, time-and-motion stud­ies, and energy audits. GHERZI bench­marks mill per­form­ance against glob­al best prac­tice across spin­ning, weav­ing, knit­ting, dye­ing, and gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­ing.

See also: Restruc­tur­ing & Turn­around · Value Chain Man­age­ment · Strategy Devel­op­ment

Restruc­tur­ing & Turn­around

Stra­tegic and oper­a­tion­al inter­ven­tions to restore prof­it­ab­il­ity and com­pet­it­ive­ness in a tex­tile com­pany facing fin­an­cial dis­tress, loss of mar­ket pos­i­tion, or struc­tur­al decline. A turn­around pro­gramme typ­ic­ally addresses: cost reduc­tion, product port­fo­lio ration­al­isa­tion, mar­ket repos­i­tion­ing, oper­a­tion­al effi­ciency improve­ment, cap­it­al struc­ture optim­isa­tion, and man­age­ment change.

See also: Strategy Devel­op­ment · Oper­a­tion­al Improve­ment · Value Chain Man­age­ment

Strategy Devel­op­ment

The for­mu­la­tion of long-term com­pet­it­ive pos­i­tion­ing and action plans for tex­tile com­pan­ies in response to mar­ket dynam­ics, sus­tain­ab­il­ity imper­at­ives, tech­no­lo­gic­al change, and sup­ply chain dis­rup­tion. Core ele­ments: situ­ation ana­lys­is (SWOT, PESTEL, Port­er­’s Five Forces), stra­tegic options gen­er­a­tion, busi­ness mod­el innov­a­tion, and imple­ment­a­tion roadmap.

See also: Mar­ket Ana­lys­is · Value Chain Man­age­ment · Restruc­tur­ing

Value Chain Man­age­ment

The act­ive man­age­ment, coordin­a­tion, and optim­isa­tion of all activ­it­ies, rela­tion­ships, and inform­a­tion flows across the tex­tile value chain to cre­ate sus­tain­able com­pet­it­ive advant­age. Encom­passes sup­pli­er devel­op­ment, ver­tic­al integ­ra­tion decisions, capa­city plan­ning, qual­ity man­age­ment, cost bench­mark­ing, and sus­tain­ab­il­ity integ­ra­tion.

See also: Value Chain · Sup­ply Chain · Strategy Devel­op­ment · Sourcing

Ver­tic­al Integ­ra­tion

A busi­ness strategy in which a tex­tile com­pany con­trols mul­tiple stages of the value chain — from fibre to fin­ished fab­ric or gar­ment — with­in the same cor­por­ate struc­ture. Back­ward integ­ra­tion (acquir­ing upstream sup­pli­ers) and for­ward integ­ra­tion (a fibre pro­du­cer acquir­ing fin­ish­ing and dis­tri­bu­tion). Reduces costs and improves qual­ity con­trol but requires sig­ni­fic­ant cap­it­al.

See also: Value Chain Man­age­ment · Value Chain · Strategy Devel­op­ment

Auto­ma­tion in Tex­tiles

The use of mech­an­ic­al, elec­tron­ic, and robot­ic sys­tems to replace or aug­ment human labour in tex­tile man­u­fac­tur­ing. Spin­ning and weav­ing are already highly auto­mated; sew­ing auto­ma­tion is the remain­ing fron­ti­er due to fab­ric pli­ab­il­ity. Tech­no­lo­gies advan­cing sew­ing auto­ma­tion include sew­bots (Soft­Wear Auto­ma­tion, Sewbo), laser cut­ting, auto­mated spread­ing and cut­ting (Lec­tra, Ger­ber), and auto­mated gar­ment inspec­tion.

See also: Industry 4.0 in Tex­tiles · Oper­a­tion­al Improve­ment · Nearshor­ing · Digit­al­isa­tion

CAD/CAM (Tex­tiles)  CAD/CAM

Com­puter-Aided Design and Com­puter-Aided Man­u­fac­tur­ing sys­tems for tex­tile and appar­el product devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion. In appar­el: CAD sys­tems (Lec­tra, Ger­ber, Opti­tex, Browzwear) are used for pat­tern mak­ing, grad­ing, mark­er plan­ning, and 3D vir­tu­al sampling. In weav­ing: CAD sys­tems (EAT, Tex­ion) design fab­ric struc­tures. CAD/CAM reduces sampling cycles, mater­i­al waste, and time-to-mar­ket.

See also: Auto­ma­tion in Tex­tiles · Digit­al­isa­tion · On-Demand Man­u­fac­tur­ing

Digit­al Print­ing (Tex­tile)

A fab­ric print­ing tech­no­logy in which digit­al files are dir­ectly con­ver­ted into prin­ted pat­terns on fab­ric using inkjet print heads (react­ive, acid, dis­perse, or pig­ment inks). Elim­in­ates the need for screens and enables short runs, mass cus­tom­isa­tion, rap­id design changes, and on-demand pro­duc­tion. Water con­sump­tion is 50–90% lower than screen print­ing.

See also: On-Demand Man­u­fac­tur­ing · Fin­ish­ing · Sub­lim­a­tion Print­ing

Industry 4.0 in Tex­tiles

The applic­a­tion of cyber-phys­ic­al sys­tems, IoT (Inter­net of Things), big data ana­lyt­ics, AI, and auto­ma­tion to tex­tile man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­cesses. Examples: AI-powered qual­ity inspec­tion (vis­ion sys­tems), pre­dict­ive main­ten­ance (sensor data), digit­al twin sim­u­la­tion of pro­duc­tion lines, auto­mated guided vehicles (AGV), and robot­ic sew­ing.

See also: Digit­al­isa­tion · Smart Tex­tiles · Auto­ma­tion · Oper­a­tion­al Improve­ment

Knit­ting Machine

A machine that pro­duces knit­ted fab­rics or gar­ments by inter­lock­ing loops of yarn with needles. Key types: cir­cu­lar knit­ting machines (for T‑shirts, under­wear, sportswear); flat knit­ting machines (fully-fash­ioned knit­wear, seam­less gar­ments; Stoll, Shi­ma Seiki); warp knit­ting machines (Ras­chel and Tricot; for lace, sportswear, tech­nic­al fab­rics).

See also: Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting · Warp Knit­ting · Gauge (Knit­ting) · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles

Loom Tech­no­logy

The range of weft inser­tion tech­no­lo­gies used in mod­ern weav­ing machines: rapi­er looms (flex­ible or rigid grip­pers carry weft across), air-jet looms (com­pressed air pro­pels weft, highest speed), water-jet looms (for water-repel­lent yarns), pro­jectile looms (Sulzer, for tech­nic­al fab­rics), and shuttle looms (leg­acy tech­no­logy). Lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers: Pican­ol, Toyota, Tsudakoma, Dorni­er, Itema.

See also: Weav­ing · Warp · Weft · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles

Needle­punch

A non­woven bond­ing pro­cess in which barbed needles are repeatedly punched through a fibre web, mech­an­ic­ally entangling the fibres without adhes­ives or heat. Needle­punch pro­duces dur­able, dense non­wovens used in auto­mot­ive car­pet­ing, geo­tex­tiles, fil­tra­tion media, floor cov­er­ings, and insu­la­tion. The pro­cess is ver­sat­ile across fibre types (poly­es­ter, polypro­pyl­ene, nat­ur­al fibres, recycled con­tent).

See also: Non­woven · Geo­tex­tile · Fil­tra­tion Tex­tiles · Tech­nic­al Tex­tiles

Tex­tur­ing

A yarn pro­cessing meth­od that imparts crimp, bulk, and stretch to smooth fil­a­ment yarns to increase their cov­er, soft­ness, and elasti­city. The dom­in­ant tech­no­logy is false-twist tex­tur­ing (DTY) for poly­es­ter and nylon. Oth­er meth­ods: air-tex­tur­ing (for high-tenacity yarns and tech­nic­al applic­a­tions), stuffer-box crimp­ing, and knit-de-knit.

See also: Draw Tex­tur­ing (DTY) · Fil­a­ment Yarn · Cir­cu­lar Knit­ting