Gabardine is a tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers, and other garments.
The fibre used to make the fabric is traditionally worsted wool, but may also be cotton, tex turized polyester, or a blend. Gabardine is woven as a warp-faced steep or regular twill, with a prominent diagonal rib on the face and smooth surface on the back. Gabardine always has many more warp than weft yarns.
Cotton gabardine is often used by bespoke tailors to make pocket linings for business suits, where the pocket’s contents would quickly wear holes in the usual flimsy pocket lining material.[citation needed]
Clothing made from gabardine is generally labeled as being suitable for dry cleaning only, as is typical for wool textiles.
Gabardine may also refer to the twill-weave used for gabardine fabric, or to a raincoat made of this fabric.
