What is Viscose? You would have probably heard of this term but never thought much about it.
Look at the above dress, it is made of Viscose! This fibre is currently ruling the hearts of many fashionistas across the world.
If you want to get into the fashion industry, specifically into women clothing and dresses, it would be good time for you to start learning about this fabric. As always, we will go into the bad technical details about it and leave nothing short of expertise on this topic.
Probably, by the end of this post, both you and me would know everything about this fabric and not have the question “What is Viscose”!
Viscose has many properties of Cotton and people tend to recognise it with silk, as it is light, has a great lustre, differentiation being it is cheap.
It became an alternative of Silk for the modern era, where women who could not afford silk and use its benefits could now enjoy the same charms of the garment.
Viscose is a type of Rayon.
Rayon can have various types like Viscose, Modal, Lyocell and others.
They differ with each other on the way they are manufactured and the feel and use of the end product.
Let us start by the history, of why this fabric was developed and what was the need.
Rayon is derived from French word “rays of light” and was first sold as artificial silk. Rayon is made from cellulose derived from naturally occurring material. The first manufactured cellulosic fibre was invented in France in 1884, however first commercial production was in 1910 by Avtex fibre Inc. in USA
Some of the common rayon are viscose rayon, acetate rayon, cup ammonium rayon.
Amongst the various rayon viscose rayon is most commonly commercially manufactured rayon and find wide application in textile, tire cord industry. Global demand of this fibre is 3,20,000 tonnes per annum.
Viscose is used to make clothing items such as shirts, skirts and light jackets. It’s a lightweight fabric, which means that the clothes made from it generally drape well and are suited to warmer temperatures. However, when wet, the fabric tends to lose its strength. When wet, due to low strength, the garments of Viscose tend to more wear and tear.
It also has more shine. The shine of the fabric helped its parent fabric rayon get the first three letters of the name name “Ray”. the other two letters were taken from Cotton. It again depicted Rayon to be a better fabric than cotton.
Viscose is also used as a lining in many dresses that are made of other fabrics.
Is the fabric too hot to wear?
This fabric is made from natural cellulose, which is subjected to various chemical treatments to create a fibrous material suitable for clothing. Thus it is cool and comfortable to wear in tropical climates.
To be used in the fashion industry, we can use a variety of treatments on the fabric before moving the same to the stitching unit.
We can dye the fabric and also print it using various methods.
However, because viscose dresses are made in large quantities, industrial sublimation is used on most of the fabric in the market.
How to care for viscose dresses?
Wash:
Do not use dryer.
Do not wring or wrist.
Hang dry.
Dry:
Steam.
Turn inside out slightly damp and iron on medium.
Caution:
DO NOT
- use bleach.
- use hot water.
- use dryer.
- deep out of sun.
- use fabric conditioner.
I think both you and me now pretty much know about Viscose and its applications.
Do let me know in the comments if you want to cover anything else, or expand this topic. 🙂
Also read: What are Pantone colors?