Plate No. 045fabric
The uniform and suiting standard.
- First documented
- Middle Ages
- Origin
- Mediterranean, France
- Fiber
- wool
- Weave
- 2/2 twill
- Family
- twills
Plate No. 045 · fabric
Serge
Serge is a smooth, hard-wearing 2/2 wool twill with a clear diagonal visible on both faces. It is the great uniform cloth of history: armies, navies, police forces, and school tailors all settled on serge because it holds a press, sheds wear, and dyes to deep solid colors. Blue serge in particular became shorthand for the respectable suit. Denim owes it a debt by name, serge de Nimes clipped to denim, though the two cloths parted ways in fiber and construction.
Named for
From the Latin serica, silken cloth, by way of Old French sarge; the name traveled from silk to the sturdy wool twill that kept it.
Sources & References
- 1.Serge (fabric), Wikipedia
- 2.serge, Online Etymology Dictionary
