Fabric Guide
Canvas
Canvas is a very strong and durable plain weave. Russell uses canvas fabric for heavy duty workwear trousers and jackets.
Combed ring spun yarn
Before ring spinning takes place, a combing process extracts shorter fibres and aligns the cotton fibres. This allows for a still finer and smoother quality of yarn, further increasing hand feel and durability. Combed ring spun cotton is used for many Russell products.
Elastane
An elastic fibre that is usually blended at low percentages (between 3% and 10% content) to achieve fabrics with stretch properties. The higher the elastane content is, the more a fabric will stretch and adapt to the wearer’s body contours.
Fleece fabric
A knitted garment (polyester or PolyCotton) is subjected to a strong brushing process, creating a deep fluffy surface. Used 2-sided to create outdoor fleece and microfleece fabrics, and 1-sided for the inner side of most sweatshirts.
Jersey
Perhaps the most common pattern, used for t-shirts, sweats, fleeces and similar garment types. Provides some natural stretch and a high level of stability.
Knitwear
The fabric generally associated with “knitting”, used for pullovers, cardigans and similar garments.
Micro-twill
A very fine weave using thinner and smoother yarns, combining excellent flow and drape with the elegance of a fine weave fabric. An excellent fabric for premium formal shirts.
Non-iron
Formal shirts that don’t require ironing and keep wrinkle free while worn. Traditionally achieved by applying a coating onto the fabric. Russell’s ultimate non-iron shirts use a modern steaming technology that achieves superior non-iron properties without any coating.
Nylon
The durability and strength of nylon make it a popular choice for high performance garments such as jackets, allowing for a high degree of breathability and moisture transfer. Russell uses nylon fabrics for part of its jacket range.
Open end yarn
Russell does not use any open end yarn. This is the simplest and most cost efficient spinning method, resulting in the lowest quality of cotton yarns. Shorter fibres stand away from the direction of the yarn, leading to a coarser, fuzzier feel and lower fabric life span, as the shorter fibres tend to be washed out over time.
Oxford
Very popular shirt fabric with characteristic basketweave appearance. The combination of elegant appearance and excellent durability make Oxford fabrics a good choice for shirts used as Team uniforms.
Peached fabric
Fabric surface is softened by emery covered rollers. This emerizing process breaks the surface of the yarns, creating a softer hand feel. Peached fabrics are used in Russell’s casual twill shirts.
Pima cotton
Pima Cotton uses the fibre of a different species of cotton plant, Gossypium Barbadense. Accounting for only a small proportion of world cotton production it is also known as Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton. The long fibres of this species can be spun into a superior fine and smooth yarn, used for luxurious high-end fabrics.
Pique
A fabric generally used for polo shirts. Most commonly used is the single tuck pique, with its finer micro pique variation using finer yarn and a narrower knitting pattern. The double tuck pique has a characteristic honeycomb pattern with superior durability and a softer hand feel.
Polyester
Polyester is one of the most common and most versatile man-made fibres. Modern polyester fibres combine excellent performance and durability with high wearer comfort and pleasant appearance. Often polyester is blended with cotton to combine the advantages of natural and man-made fibres. Performance garments are often made from 100% polyester (or blended with some elastane), as modern polyester fabrics can provide high degrees of breathability and moisture transfer.
Poplin
Poplin provides a smooth hand feel and an elegant looking surface, making it one of the most common weave types for formal shirt fabrics. It’s tightly woven and provides excellent durability.
Ring spun yarn
Ring spinning integrates shorter fibres into the yarn by adjusting them with the longer yarns. This leads to a smoother yarn with a softer hand feel and higher durability. Russell only uses yarn that is at least ring spun quality or better.
Tencel®
A man-made fibre using a natural raw material (woodpulp from sustainably farmed eucalyptus trees), and produced in an environmentally friendly process, Tencel® has superior hand feel, is very skin friendly and provides excellent moisture transfer properties. Tencel® is generally blended with other fibres, Russell uses blends with cotton.
Twill
Varying the crossovers of the two yarns, warp and weft, creates diagonal patterns which improve the flow and drape of a garment. Russell uses twill weaves for shirt fabrics, as well as for workwear trousers, the good flow of the fabric combining durability with wearer comfort.
Woven
Two yarns, the warp and the weft, are interlaced, running in 90 degree angles to each other. Different weaving patterns lead to different fabric characteristics
