Taffeta

Taffeta (archaically spelled taffety or taffata) is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk, nylon, cuprammonium rayons, acetate, or polyester.

It tends to yield a stiff cloth with a starched appearance that holds its shape better than many other fabrics and does not sag or drape.

There, even in the modern period, handlooms have been widely used, but since the 1990s, taffeta has been largely produced on mechanical looms in the Bangalore area.

From the 1970s until the 1990s, the Jiangsu province of China produced fine silk taffetas: these were less flexible than those from Indian mills, however, and the latter continue to dominate production.

Other countries in South-East and Western Asia also produce silk taffeta, but these products tend not yet to be equal in quality or competitiveness to those from India.