Fustian

Fustian is a variety of heavy cloth woven from cotton, chiefly prepared for menswear.

[1][4] It embraces plain twilled cloth known as jean, and cut fabrics similar to velvet, known as velveteen, moleskin, corduroy etc.

The original medieval fustian was a stout but respectable cloth with a cotton weft and a linen warp.

[5] The term seems to have quickly become less precise, and was applied to a coarse cloth made of wool and linen, and in the reign of Edward III of England, the name was given to a woollen fabric.

The back of the cloth would now be filled to give it stiffness: this could be with a glue-based mixture made from boiled bones, although each manufacturer had its own techniques.

The historian Paul Pickering has called the wearing of fustian "a statement of class without words.

"[9][full citation needed] Fustian also refers to pompous, inflated or pretentious writing or speech, starting from the time of Shakespeare.