Nankeen

Nankeen is the buff-yellow cotton of the China trade, and its color was its marvel: it was not dyed at all, but woven from a naturally yellow-tinged cotton grown around Nanjing. The cloth sailed west by the shipload in the eighteenth century and clothed Regency men in the pale trousers every Austen adaptation reaches for. European mills eventually imitated the shade with dye, the true yellow cotton faded from trade, and nankeen survives mostly as a word in costume histories and the name of a porcelain blue it once traveled with.

Illustration: a Canton trading hong in the 1700s, bales of buff yellow cotton stacked for export, clerks at a distance with ledgers, junks on the river through the windows — A Canton trading hong in the 1700s, bales of buff yellow cotton stacked for export, clerks at a distance with ledgers, junks on the river through the windows.

Named for

Named for Nanjing (Nankin in older romanization), the city from which the cloth was exported.

Also known as

nankin

Modern equivalent

The closest cloth in this catalogue you can source today.

Chino →

In the record

1700sNankeen trousers became a staple of European fashion, shipped from Canton by the East India companies.

Common questions

What is Nankeen made of?: Nankeen is the buff-yellow cotton of the China trade, and its color was its marvel: it was not dyed at all, but woven from a naturally yellow-tinged cotton grown around Nanjing.
How is Nankeen made?: Nankeen is woven as a plain weave.
What is Nankeen named after?: Named for Nanjing (Nankin in older romanization), the city from which the cloth was exported.