HomeGlossary

Glossary

J

Jacquard

Jacquard, a fabric with woven designs, takes its name from the inventor of the automatic weaving machine, Joseph Marie Jacquard.  Invented in 1801, this machine brought together the existing techniques of needles, punch cards and cylinders.  It can be regarded as the ancestor of the computer or the robot as it is programmed to function.  The perforated punch cards encode the raising of the warp yarns with hooks (heddles) throughout the weaving.  The designs chosen are interpreted and carded, originally manually by a textile technician, today with the use of computer aided design software (CAD).  The coding takes a number of complex parameters into account : interweaving, binding, the type of weave according to the look and technical requirements such as blurring, a surface pattern or lines.

Jean / denim

The word jeans comes from Genoa (once known as Jeane in English, the French name is Gênes) ancient cloths of fustian, canvas or twill with a cotton weft and a linen or silk warp. This blue cloth was used for sailcloth, clothing for workers or more rarely as artists’ canvas.  Jeans were coloured using indigo dye.  Today the term refers to the material as well as the famous blue jeans.

This browser is not compatible with our website.

For the best experience, we recommend using one of the following browsers :