What is Drape?

Drape describes the way a fabric hangs, falls and moves under its own weight. A fabric with soft or fluid drape tends to fall closely around the body and form flowing folds, while a fabric with more structured drape holds its shape and can sit further away from the body.

Drape is an important characteristic in clothing because it can dramatically affect the shape, movement and overall appearance of a finished garment.

What does fabric drape mean?

When we talk about the drape of a fabric, we're describing how that fabric behaves when it is allowed to hang rather than being laid flat.

Some fabrics collapse into soft, flowing folds.

Others remain relatively rigid and maintain a more defined shape.

Neither is necessarily better. The ideal drape depends on what the designer wants the finished garment to do.

A flowing blouse and a structured corporate jacket require very different fabric characteristics.

What is a fabric with good drape?

You'll often hear a fabric described as having "good drape", but that's a slightly misleading expression because there's no single ideal type of drape.

Usually, people mean that a fabric hangs smoothly and fluidly rather than appearing stiff.

However, a highly structured fabric might be exactly what's needed for a particular garment.

It is therefore more useful to describe fabrics as having fluid, soft or structured drape rather than simply good or bad drape.

What is fluid drape?

A fabric with fluid drape falls easily under its own weight and tends to form soft folds.

Rather than holding itself away from the body, it often follows the body's contours and moves freely with the wearer.

Fluid drape is commonly associated with garments such as:

• blouses
• flowing dresses
• skirts
• fashion tops
• scarves
• wide-leg trousers

Viscose and rayon fabrics are particularly well known for their ability to create soft, flowing garments.

What is structured drape?

A fabric with structured drape has greater stiffness or body and is better able to maintain a defined shape.

This can allow a garment to sit away from the body and create a stronger silhouette.

Structured fabrics are often useful for:

• jackets
• blazers
• structured dresses
• tailored skirts
• workwear
• some uniforms

The structure may come from the fabric itself or from garment construction techniques and additional components such as lining or interfacing.

What affects the drape of fabric?

Drape isn't determined by one thing.

Several characteristics work together, including:

Fibre

Different fibres have different physical properties that influence how the finished fabric behaves.

Viscose, polyester, cotton, wool and other fibres can all produce fabrics with different levels of softness and fluidity.

Fabric construction

Whether the fabric is knitted or woven can have a major influence on its flexibility.

Knitted fabrics often have greater natural flexibility because they're constructed from interconnected loops of yarn.

Woven fabrics are constructed from intersecting warp and weft threads and can provide greater stability.

But this is not an absolute rule.

A lightweight woven fabric can have extremely fluid drape, while a thick or densely knitted fabric can be relatively structured.

Fabric weight

Weight can significantly affect how a fabric hangs.

A heavier fabric may fall more strongly under gravity, but weight alone doesn't determine drape. Two fabrics of the same weight can behave very differently depending on their construction and fibre composition.

Thickness and stiffness

Generally, a softer and more flexible fabric can form smaller, more fluid folds, while a stiffer fabric tends to create larger, more defined shapes.

Finishing

Treatments applied during textile manufacturing can alter the softness, stiffness and surface characteristics of a fabric and therefore change its drape.

Does fabric weight determine drape?

Not by itself. This is an important distinction because fabric weight and fabric drape describe different things.

Fabric weight tells us how heavy a particular area of fabric is, often expressed as GSM (grams per square metre).

Drape tells us how that fabric hangs and moves.

A lightweight fabric isn't automatically fluid and a heavyweight fabric isn't automatically stiff.

Knit vs woven fabric drape

Knitted fabrics often have greater flexibility and natural stretch because of their looped construction, allowing many knits to conform readily to the body.

Woven fabrics generally have greater dimensional stability but their drape varies enormously. Lightweight woven viscose, silk and polyester fabrics can be extremely fluid, while heavier canvas or twill fabrics can be very structured.

So you can't determine drape simply by asking whether a fabric is knitted or woven.

How does drape affect the fit of clothing?

Drape has a big influence on how we perceive fit.

A soft, fluid fabric may follow the body's contours even when the garment itself isn't particularly tight.

A more structured fabric can create space between the garment and the body, allowing the clothing to establish its own silhouette.

That's why two garments made from exactly the same pattern could potentially look quite different when made from fabrics with different drape characteristics.

Is drape the same as stretch?

No. Drape describes how fabric hangs. Stretch describes how much it can extend when force is applied.

A fabric can have beautiful fluid drape without being particularly stretchy.

Likewise, a stretchy fabric isn't necessarily extremely fluid.

The two characteristics can interact but they describe different properties.

How does bias cutting affect drape?

Cutting woven fabric on the true bias, approximately 45 degrees to the warp and weft, allows the threads to shift more easily in relation to one another.

This gives the fabric additional mechanical give and can allow it to fall and follow curves more fluidly.

Bias cutting therefore became particularly important in garments designed around flowing, body-skimming silhouettes.

The fabric hasn't changed, the direction in which it has been cut changes how it behaves.

What fabrics have good drape?

If by "good drape" we mean soft and fluid, fabrics commonly associated with this characteristic include viscose/rayon, silk and many lightweight polyester fabrics.

Some jersey fabrics can also drape beautifully.

But fibre name alone isn't enough to predict the result.

For example, polyester can be manufactured into everything from an extremely lightweight flowing blouse fabric to a considerably more structured workwear textile.

Why is drape important in uniforms?

Drape can make a surprisingly big difference to how a uniform looks and feels.

In corporate uniforms, softer draping fabrics can create flowing blouses, dresses and trousers with a more relaxed or contemporary appearance.

More structured fabrics may be preferred for jackets, tailored trousers, skirts and formal corporate garments where retaining a defined silhouette is important.

In casual uniforms, the drape of a T-shirt or polo can also affect how the garment sits on the body.

So when choosing uniforms, fabric isn't only about durability, weight and fibre composition. How the material actually hangs on the wearer matters too.