Contents
Foreword vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Comments and credits for the colour plates xv
1 Introduction and background 1
1.1 Definition 2
1.2 Purpose and scope 3
1.3 Methodology 3
2 Historical development 5
3 The size of the market for fancy yarns 9
3.1 Introduction 9
3.2 Starting the successive scenario technique 12
3.3 The method of the successive scenario technique 15
4 Manufacturing attitudes and the applications of fancy yarns 22
4.1 Manufacturing attitudes and equipment 22
4.2 Applications for fancy yarns 23
5 Introduction to fancy yarn structures, and analysis of fancy yarns 29
5.1 Introduction 29
5.2 Analysing yarns 30
6 Structures and formation of fancy yarns 33
6.1 Marl yarn 33
6.2 Spiral or corkscrew yarn 34
6.3 Gimp yarn 35
6.4 Diamond yarn 36
6.5 Eccentric yarn 37
6.6 Bouclé yarn 38
6.7 Loop yarn 40
6.8 Snarl yarn 43
6.9 Mock chenille yarn 44
6.10 Knop yarn 45
6.11 Stripe yarn 46
6.12 Cloud or grandrelle yarn 47
6.13 Slub yarn 47
6.14 Nepp yarn and fleck yarn 50
6.15 Button yarn 51
6.16 Fasciated yarn 53
6.17 Tape yarn 53
6.18 Chainette yarn 55
6.19 Chenille yarn 55
6.20 Cover yarn 59
6.21 Metallic yarn 59
7 Manufacturing techniques 60
7.1 Overview of production processes 60
7.2 Yarn production systems 62
7.3 Yarn and fabric trials 87
7.4 Future developments 90
8 The design and application of fancy yarns 92
8.1 Introduction 92
8.2 The design implications of fancy yarns 92
8.3 The use – or not – of luxury fibres 94
8.4 Intellectual property in design 95
8.5 Uses for fancy yarns 97
8.6 New yarns, new fibres, new ideas 99
8.7 The retail potential of fancy yarns 100
8.8 Retailing 100
8.9 Apparel fabrics 102
8.10 Furnishing fabrics 108
8.11 Designing the yarns 110
8.12 The design of fancy yarns using computers 113
8.13 Designing fabrics using fancy yarns and fancy doubled yarns 116
9 The marketing of fancy yarns 126
9.1 The market size and form 126
9.2 The markets available and marketing techniques employed 127
9.3 Historical evidence for the status of fancy yarns 130
9.4 The challenge of marketing 131
9.5 Management and marketing issues as they affect the fashion and fabrics industries 133
10 Conclusion 144
References 145
Bibliography 146
Index 149
Preface
In recent years, there has been a very marked increase in the interest in and applications of fancy yarns and fancy doubled yarns, and these yarns now have considerable commercial significance. This is the case even though they form a relatively small volume of the overall textile fibre output of the world. This volume is estimated to be about 1% by weight of the mill consumption statistics, and in 1998 the value of the European market was estimated to be around £500M. The motto of the Textile Institute ‘All human life hangs by a thread’ (Omnia sunt pendentia filo hominum tenui) demonstrates that organisation’s appreciation of the universal and interdisciplinary nature of the textile world. But Shakespeare’s remark that ‘the web of life is of a mingled yarn’ is of more direct relevance to our concerns, since fancy yarns and fancy doubled yarns are essentially ‘mingled’ as a result of their physical characteristics. This book will discuss the ‘mingling’ of the many varieties, their modes of manufacture, and the design and marketing implications that result from their use.
An increase in the general appreciation of the design and marketing opportunities opening to the fancy yarns sector has also become apparent recently. This increase has been driven mainly by the prominent design houses. The trend has had a variable application in place, time, and market sector, and there are a number of reasons for this variability.There is a prejudice frequently expressed by some spinners that fancy yarns of any description are troublesome and difficult to manufacture, and that they divert time and attention from other matters. There is also the point that the combination of budgetary and time pressures on the many university and college departments offering courses for textile students, together make it difficult to give any considerable allotment of study or workshop periods. In addition, lecturers and instructors in universities and technical colleges have, until now, been commonly of the age to be most strongly influenced by the prejudices that see fancy yarns as time-consuming and irrelevant.We feel that this is resulting in an undesirable restriction in the range of information available to students and spinners.Therefore, this book attempts to address these prejudices, and to mitigate the restriction of information.We are aware that these pressures on time and money make it more difficult to assemble a library, or a hand-selected dictionary of fancy and fancy doubled yarns for every student.The production of this basic textbook covering the topic should reduce considerably the burden on lecturers and students alike.The many illustrations – of machines, yarns, fashion and fabrics – are intended to offer an elementary introduction to the manufacturing techniques now in common use and to the varying application of fancy and fancy doubled yarns. Our objective in developing this book is to create a work of reference that will offer support to both the student and the worker in the textile industry. Although this offers a broad topic in itself, it seemed that the discussion of the manufacturing techniques without some discussion also of the applications of the product would tell only half of the story, in particular when we consider that fancy yarns and fancy doubled yarns make their greatest contribution in the essentially ephemeral matters of fashion and style.We therefore seek to offer as well, a general overview of the market for fancy doubled yarns and novelty yarns as it is seen today.
This book falls naturally into four sections: the first, comprising Chapters 1 to 4, deals with the background and historical development of fancy yarns, together with an introduction to their applications. In this section we discuss the basic matters relating to our definition of a ‘fancy yarn’, give a brief overview of the historical progress of fancy yarns from the earliest archaeological records to the present day, and conclude with a discussion of their place in the present textile industry and markets.
The second section, Chapters 5 and 6, concerns fancy yarn structures.The variety of structural effects that are to be found in fancy yarns available today is described. It is illustrated with yarn diagrams and pictures of yarns in order to aid the student in identifying the basic yarn structures and types.
The third section comprises a single chapter, Chapter 7, dealing with the manufacturing techniques employed in the creation of the structural effects covered in the previous section. Again, diagrams are included to demonstrate the particular methods outlined in the text.
In the final section, Chapters 8 and 9, we attempt to offer an insight into the many issues to be confronted in the industrial creation of fancy yarns for commercial customers. These include the effect of external developments on management and marketing techniques and concerns, the effect of the particular market level targeted and the influence of the catwalk on High Street fashion.
Throughout this work, it should be recalled that we are discussing a product that, far from being a ‘commodity’, instead offers the designer an opportunity to create some truly unique fabrics and garments. It seems clear to us that the marketing dimension – especially in terms of the future – merits as much attention as that granted to the discussions of the mechanisms that already have been, or that may be, devised to produce those yarns. However, the yarn structures, and the machine parameters and their characteristics, and the properties of the yarns they produce, will be described before we consider these matters, which are less closely related to the technical reality of creating a useable yarn.