Denim Glossary

Made 2007 by Thomas Flinn - Denim Director at WeSC.

Broken twill:
Zig-zag weave where the diagonal line changes direction to avoid
twisting and has a soft hand feel.

Coin and back pockets cut to selvage:
The pockets are positioned and cut on the narrow woven edge of the fabric, so the WeSC exclusive yellow and blue selvage line is visible. First designed by WeSC for the Fall/Winter 2005 collection.

Damages:
Manual treatment with sand paper or a small grinding machine, to
distress and damage specific areas of the garment.

Denim:
Durable cotton twill weave fabric with an indigo dyed yarn in the warp and a
natural, un-dyed yarn in the weft. The origin of denim has been attributed to serge de
Nimes, a cloth produced in the French textile manufacturing town of Nimes during the
17th Century.

Indigo:
Dark blue dye used for denim originally taken from the indigofera plant. It is now manufactured synthetically and used for dying denim due to its ability to fade.

Left hand twill:
Twill weave where the diagonal line rises from bottom right to top left
on the front side of the fabric and has a softer hand feel.

Loom:
A fabric weaving machine.

Open end denim:
The cotton fibres are shorter and a simpler process is used to
form the yarn. It is, therefore, cheaper to produce. The fabric is stiffer, bulkier and has a coarser hand feel than ring spun denim.

Oz (ounce):
The weight of denim is measured in ounce per square yard. Generally
WeSC denim is 12oz - 13oz for non-stretch and 11oz - 12oz for comfort stretch.

Pin tack:
Garments are pinned in specific areas with plastic tacks before washing to create worn creases and an irregular washed effect.

Pre-skewed:
This is a fabric finishing process which shrinks and stabilizes the denim
before it is cut.

Right hand twill:
Twill weave where the diagonal line rises from bottom left to top
right on the front side of the fabric. It is the standard weave for most denim and has a
tighter construction. All WeSC denim is right hand twill.

Ring spun denim:
The cotton fibres are longer and twisted together to form the yarn
and consequently it is of higher quality and stronger. The fabric has a natural unevenness and vintage look with a softer hand feel and is more hardwearing. All WeSC denim is ring spun.

Scraping:
This is the manual treatment, with sand paper, which creates abrasion
and removes indigo color for a used worn-in look.

Selvage:
The narrow woven edge of the fabric that prevents unravelling. It was a
characteristic of vintage denim produced on original 29-inch shuttle looms and is now almost obsolete due to the wider, more efficient looms used for mass production.  Selvage denim generally features a colored ID line, originally used to identify a brands fabric. WeSC premium denim has an exclusive yellow and blue selvage
design.

Slub yarn:
Yarn with thicker, loosely twisted areas alternating with thinner, tighter
twisted areas to produce an uneven yarn that gives an irregular look to the denim.

Stretch selvage:
A modern development of selvage denim produced on original 29-
inch shuttle looms incorporating elastane. First introduced by WeSC for the Spring/Summer 2006 collection.

Stonewashing:
The process where garments are aged or distressed by washing
them with pumice stones.

Tinting:
This process achieves a dirt effect where garments are either dyed during
washing for all over tinting or sprayed in specific areas for local tinting.

Warp:
The yarns in a woven fabric that run parallel to the selvage. In denim the warp yarns are dyed indigo.

Washing:
The finishing process for denim jeans, including handmade whiskers,
hand scraping, damages, pin tacks, tinting and stonewashing to produce an authentic
worn in look.

Weft:
The yarns in a woven fabric that run widthways from selvage to selvage. In denim the weft yarns are natural and un-dyed.

Whiskers: 
Manual treatment with sand paper to create worn-in creases at the front
thigh, crotch and back knee.