Where does Corduroy come from?

Corduroy comes from Manchester, the United Kingdom, first documented in the 1700s.

Plate No. 035fabric

First documented: 1700s
Origin: Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Fiber: cotton
Weave: weft-pile cut into wales
Family: pile

Plate No. 035 · fabric

Corduroy

Corduroy is a cotton pile cloth in the fustian family: extra weft yarns float over the ground weave, are cut, and brush up into velvety ribs called wales that run the length of the cloth. The wale count per inch names the cloth, from fat eight-wale jumbo cord to fine twenty-one-wale needlecord. Woven around Manchester from the eighteenth century, it became the hard-wearing cloth of laborers and farmers, then of professors and 1970s tailoring. The render shows its signature ribbed face in stylized form.

Illustration: a Manchester fustian cutter's workroom in the 19th century, a long table with cloth stretched flat, the cutter seen from behind drawing a long knife down a wale, gaslight and hanging bolts — A Manchester fustian cutter's workroom in the 19th century, a long table with cloth stretched flat, the cutter seen from behind drawing a long knife down a wale, gaslight and hanging bolts.

Named for

Probably from cord plus duroy, an old English coarse cloth. The popular story that it is French for cord of the king, corde du roi, is folk etymology with no French source.

Also known as

cord

Common questions

What is Corduroy made of?: Corduroy is a cotton pile cloth in the fustian family: extra weft yarns float over the ground weave, are cut, and brush up into velvety ribs called wales that run the length of the cloth.
Where does Corduroy come from?: Corduroy comes from Manchester, the United Kingdom, first documented in the 1700s.
What is Corduroy named after?: Probably from cord plus duroy, an old English coarse cloth. The popular story that it is French for cord of the king, corde du roi, is folk etymology with no French source.