Fabric Abbreviations, Material Composition On Textile Labels For Interior Designers

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Fabric labels often have abbreviations and some of these generally accepted abbreviations are for non-English words. So here is a handy little reference chart for all you interior designers out there showing what all those pesky abbreviations mean. Please comment if any are missing.

Also reference here is a list of fabric qualities and what they are (eg boucle, chenille, chintz, crepe)

WO – Wool (Sheep by default)

WV – Virgin Fleece Wool

WP – Alpaca Wool

WL – Lama Wool

WS – Cashmere Goat a.k.a. Kaschmir and Cachemire and (incorrectly) Kashmir

WM – Mohair (Goat) Wool

SE – Silk / Seide

CO – Cotton / Baumwolle

LI – Flax / Linen

HA – Hemp / Hanf

CV – Viscose

CMD – Modal

CLY – Lyocell

PA – Nylon / Polyamid

PES – Polyester

PUR – Polyurethane

EL – Elastane aka spandex

ME – Metallic

AF – Other Fibers

Some Italian Translations and Abbreviations:

WP – can also mean baby alpaca Wool

VI – also means viscose

WK – camel hair wool

WA – angora wool

PBT -polyester

EA – elastane

PC – acrylic

PM – polyester

For more information on luxury cashmere throws or to request cuttings please visit www.kothea.com.  For black faux leather upholstery fabrics try <here> and for mohair velvet and mohair velvet upholstery fabric please follow the links.  Upholstery Linen is also one of our specialities as are luxury  silk velvet  fabrics.

11 Replies to “Fabric Abbreviations, Material Composition On Textile Labels For Interior Designers”

  1. Can you help me read this label? It unfortunately has no spaces. It reads like this:

    “PuntyDR65%VI30%PA5%EA320GR150cm-SAND”

    So, first off, the material is a ponty (don’t know why they spell it punty). What is the DR bit? Composition, I read at 65% viscose, 30% polyamide, 5% elastane. But was is the 320GR bit? The bolt width is 150cm, and the colour is Sand.

    So, I think I have that mostly right, except for the DR and the 320GR?

      1. Hahaha. Yes, I think it was just a spelling thing. Punty and Ponty seem to be used interchangeably in South Africa. Probably got mis-spelled one day when someone misheard an accent?

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