Gabardine

Gabardine is a tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers and other garments.

The word gaberdine or gabardine has been used to refer to a particular item of clothing, a sort of long cassock but often open at the front since at least the 15th century, in the 16th becoming used for outer garments of the poor. It was in this sense that William Shakespeare used the word in The Merchant of Venice. It has been used with a general meaning of "closely woven cloth" since at least 1904.

The modern use of the term for a fabric rather than a garment dates to Thomas Burberry, who invented the fabric & revived the name in 1879, and patented it in 1888.

The fibre used to make the fabric is traditionally worsted wool, but may also be cotton, texturised polyester, or a blend. Gabardine is woven as a warp-faced steep or regular twill, with a prominent diagonal rib on the face and smooth surface on the back. Gabardine always has many more warp than weft yarns.

Cotton gabardine is often used by bespoke tailors to make pocket linings for business suits, where the pockets' contents would quickly wear holes in the usual flimsy pocket lining material.

Clothing made from gabardine is generally labelled as being suitable for dry cleaning only, as is typical for wool textiles. Gabardine may also refer to the twill-weave used for gabardine fabric, or to a raincoat made of this fabric.

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