Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology, it has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres and cultures. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have incorporated their own cultures and as a result, the art has evolved in a number of distinct ways. See glossary of ballet. A ballet, a work, consists of the music for a ballet production. Ballets are performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets, such as the neoclassical works of American choreographer George Balanchine are performed in simple costumes and without the use of elaborate sets or scenery.
Ballet is a French word which had its origin in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo which comes from Latin ballo, meaning "to dance", which in turn comes from the Greek "βαλλίζω", "to dance, to jump about". The word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the sixteenth centuries. Under Catherine de' Medici's influence as Queen, it spread to France, where it developed further; the dancers in these early court ballets were noble amateurs. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers, but they restricted performers' freedom of movement; the ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides. The implementation of the proscenium arch from 1618 on distanced performers from audience members, who could better view and appreciate the technical feats of the professional dancers in the productions. French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 to establish standards and certify dance instructors.
In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, arose. Pierre Beauchamp served as Lully's ballet-master. Together their partnership would drastically influence the development of ballet, as evidenced by the credit given to them for the creation of the five major positions of the feet. By 1681, the first "ballerinas" took the stage following years of training at the Académie. Ballet started to decline in France after 1830, but it continued to develop in Denmark and Russia; the arrival in Europe of the Ballets Russes led by Sergei Diaghilev on the eve of the First World War revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. In the twentieth century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, Also in the twentieth century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance, leading to modernist movements in several countries. Famous dancers of the twentieth century include Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, Margot Fonteyn, Rosella Hightower, Maria Tall Chief, Erik Bruhn, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, Arthur Mitchell.
Stylistic variations and subgenres have evolved over time. Early, classical variations are associated with geographic origin. Examples of this are Russian ballet, French ballet, Italian ballet. Variations, such as contemporary ballet and neoclassical ballet, incorporate both classical ballet and non-traditional technique and movement; the most known and performed ballet style is late Romantic ballet. Classical ballet is based on vocabulary. Different styles have emerged in different countries, such as French ballet, Italian ballet, English ballet, Russian ballet. Several of the classical ballet styles are associated with specific training methods named after their creators; the Royal Academy of Dance method is a ballet technique and training system, founded by a diverse group of ballet dancers. They merged their respective dance methods to create a new style of ballet, unique to the organization and is recognized internationally as the English style of ballet; some examples of classical ballet productions are: the Nutcracker.
Romantic ballet was an artistic movement of classical ballet and several productions remain in the classical repertoire today. The Romantic era was marked by the emergence of pointe work, the dominance of female dancers, longer, flowy tutus that attempt to exemplify softness and a delicate aura; this movement occurred during the early to mid-nineteenth century and featured themes that emphasized intense emotion as a source of aesthetic experience. The plots of many romantic ballets revolved around spirit women who enslaved the hearts and senses of mortal men; the 1827 ballet La Sylphide is considered to be the first, the 1870 ballet Coppélia is considered to be the last. Famous ballet dancers of the Romantic era include Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Jules Perrot. Jules Perrot is known for his choreography that of Giselle considered to be the most celebrated romantic ballet. Neoclassical ballet is abstract, with no clear plot, costumes or scenery. Music choice can be diverse and will include music, neoclassical.
Tim Schol
Worsted
Worsted is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, a yarn weight category. The name derives from a village in the English county of Norfolk; that village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, formed a manufacturing centre for yarn and cloth in the 12th century, when pasture enclosure and liming rendered the East Anglian soil too rich for the older agrarian sheep breeds. In the same period, many weavers from Flanders moved to Norfolk. "Worsted" yarns/fabrics are distinct from woollens: the former is considered stronger, finer and harder than the latter. Worsted was made from the long-staple pasture wool from sheep breeds such as Teeswaters, Old Leicester Longwool and Romney Marsh. Pasture wool was not carded; when woven, worsteds were scoured but not fulled. Worsted wool fabric is used in the making of tailored garments such as suits, as opposed to woollen wool, used for knitted items such as sweaters; the essential feature of worsted yarn is parallel fibres. Long, fine staple wool was spun to create worsted yarn.
Many spinners differentiate between worsted worsted spinning. Worsted preparation refers to the way the fibre is prepared before spinning, using ginning machines which force the fibre staples to lie parallel to each other. Once these fibres have been made into a top, they are combed to remove the short fibres; the long fibres are combined in subsequent gilling machines to again make the fibres parallel. This produces. Worsted spinning refers to using a worsted technique, which produces a smooth yarn in which the fibres lie parallel. Roving and wool top are used to spin worsted yarn. Many hand spinners buy their fibre in top form. Top and roving are ropelike in appearance, in that they can be long. While some mills put a slight twist in the rovings they make, it is not enough twist to be a yarn; the fibres in top and rovings all lie parallel to one another along the length, which makes top ideal for spinning worsted yarns. Worsted-spun yarns, used to create worsted fabric, are spun from fibres that have been combed, to ensure that the fibres all run the same direction, butt-end to tip, remain parallel.
A short draw is used in spinning worsted fibres. In short draw spinning, spun from combed roving, sliver or wool top, the spinners keep their hands close to each other; the fibres are held. The twist is kept between the second hand and the wheel—there is never any twist between the two hands. Worsted cloth, archaically known as stuff, is lightweight and has a coarse texture; the weave is twill or plain. Twilled fabrics such as whipcord and serge are made from worsted yarn. Worsted fabric made from wool has a natural recovery, meaning that it is resilient and returns to its natural shape, but non-glossy worsted will shine with use or abrasion. Worsteds differ from woollens, in that the natural crimp of the wool fibre is removed in the process of spinning the yarn. In'tropical' worsteds this use of spun, straightened wool combined with a looser weave permits the free flow of air through the fabric. Worsted is used for carpets, hosiery and baize. According to the Craft Yarn Council, the term "Worsted Weight" known as "Afghan", "Aran", or "Medium", refers to a particular weight of yarn that produces a gauge of 16–20 stitches per 4 inches of stockinette, is best knitted with 4.5mm to 5.5mm needles.
Before the introduction of automatic machinery, there was little difficulty in attaining a straight fibre, as long wool was always used, the sliver was made up by hand, using combs. The introduction of Richard Arkwright's water frame in 1771, the introduction of cap and mule spinning machines, required prepared slivers. Many manufactories used one or more preparatory combing machines before worsting, to ensure straight fibres and to distribute the lubricant evenly; this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Aldred Farrer. "Wool and Woollen Manufactures". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. XXVIII. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 805–816. Barber, E. J. W.. Prehistoric Textiles. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00224-X. Burnham, Dorothy K.. Warp and Weft: A Textile Terminology. Royal Ontario Museum. ISBN 0-88854-256-9. Standard Yarn Weight System - Lists recommended needle sizes, etc. for the various yarn weight categories. Woolen and Worsted Yarns joyofhandspinning.com on Dutch combs ODP Yarns and sewing threads directory Worsted Spinning "So what's the deal with this worsted versus woolen thing?"
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess, is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The practice of awarding baronetcies was introduced in England in the 14th century and was used by James I of England in 1611 as a means of raising funds. A baronetcy is the only British hereditary honour, not a peerage, with the exception of the Anglo-Irish Black Knight, White Knight and Green Knight. A baronet is addressed as "Sir" or "Dame" in the case of a baronetess but ranks above all knighthoods and damehoods in the order of precedence, except for the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, the dormant Order of St Patrick. Baronets are conventionally seen to belong to the lesser nobility though William Thoms claims that "The precise quality of this dignity is not yet determined, some holding it to be the head of the nobiles minores, while others, rank Baronets as the lowest of the nobiles majores, because their honour, like that of the higher nobility, is both hereditary and created by patent."Comparisons with continental titles and ranks are tenuous due to the British system of primogeniture and the fact that claims to baronetcies must be proven.
In practice this means that the UK Peerage and Baronetage consists of about 2000 families, 0.01% of UK families. In some continental countries the nobility consisted of about 5% of the population, in most countries titles are no longer recognised or regulated by the state; the term baronet has medieval origins. Sir Thomas de La More, describing the Battle of Boroughbridge, mentioned that baronets took part, along with barons and knights. Edward III is known to have created eight baronets in 1328. Present-day Baronets date from 1611 when James I granted Letters Patent to 200 gentlemen of good birth with an income of at least £1,000 a year. In 1619 James I established the Baronetage of Ireland; the new baronets were each required to pay 2,000 marks or to support six colonial settlers for two years. Over a hundred of these baronetcies, now familiarly known as Scottish baronetcies, survive to this day; as a result of the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, all future creations were styled baronets of Great Britain.
Following the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, new creations were styled as baronets of the United Kingdom. Under royal warrants of 1612 and 1613, certain privileges were accorded to baronets. Firstly, no person or persons should have the younger sons of peers. Secondly, the right of knighthood was established for the eldest sons of baronets, thirdly, baronets were allowed to augment their armorial bearings with the Arms of Ulster on an inescutcheon: "in a field Argent, a Hand Geules"; these privileges were extended to baronets of Ireland, for baronets of Scotland the privilege of depicting the Arms of Nova Scotia as an augmentation of honour. The former applies to this day for all baronets of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom created subsequently; the title of baronet was conferred upon noblemen who lost the right of individual summons to Parliament, was used in this sense in a statute of Richard II. A similar title of lower rank was banneret. Since 1965 only one new baronetcy has been created, for Sir Denis Thatcher on 7 December 1990, husband of a former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Like knights, baronets are accorded the style "Sir" before their first name. Baronetesses in their own right use "Dame" before their first name, while wives of baronets use "Lady" followed by the husband's surname only, this by longstanding courtesy. Wives of baronets are not baronetesses. Unlike knighthoods – which apply to the recipient only – a baronetcy is hereditarily entailed; the eldest son of a baronet, born in wedlock succeeds to a baronetcy upon his father's death, but will not be recognised until his name is recognised by being placed on the Official Roll. With some exceptions granted with special remainder by letters patent, baronetcies descend through the male line. A full list of extant baronets appears in Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, which published a record of extinct baronetcies. A baronetcy is not a peerage, so baronets like knights and junior members of peerage families are commoners and not peers of the realm. According to the Home Office there is a tangible benefit to the honour of baronet: according to law, a baronet is entitled to have "a pall supported by two men, a principal mourner and four others" assisting at his funeral.
Baronets had other rights, including the right to have the eldest son knighted on his 21st birthday. However, at the beginning of George IV's reign, these rights were eroded by Orders-in-Council on the grounds that Sovereigns should not be bound by acts made by their predecessors. Baronets although never having been automatically entitled to heraldic supporters, were allowed them in heredity in the first half of the 19th century where the title holder was a
Jacquard loom
The Jacquard machine is a device fitted to a power loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade and matelassé. It was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804; the loom was controlled by a "chain of cards". Multiple rows of holes were punched on each card, with one complete card corresponding to one row of the design. Several such paper cards white in color, can be seen in the images below. Chains, like Bouchon's earlier use of paper tape, allowed sequences of any length to be constructed, not limited by the size of a card, it is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon, Jean Baptiste Falcon, Jacques Vaucanson. A static display of a Jacquard loom is the centrepiece of the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs in Lyon. Live displays of a Jacquard loom are available at a few private museums around Lyon and twice a day at La Maison des Canuts, as well as at other locations around the world. Both the Jacquard process and the necessary loom attachment are named after their inventor.
This mechanism is one of the most important weaving inventions as Jacquard shedding made possible the automatic production of unlimited varieties of pattern weaving. The term "Jacquard" is not specific or limited to any particular loom, but rather refers to the added control mechanism that automates the patterning; the process can be used for patterned knitwear and machine-knitted textiles, such as jerseys. This use of replaceable punched cards to control a sequence of operations is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware. Traditionally, figured designs were made on a drawloom; the heddles with warp ends to be pulled up were manually selected by a second operator, the draw boy, not the weaver. The work was slow and labour-intensive, the complexity of the pattern was limited by practical factors. An improvement of the draw loom took place in 1725, when Basile Bouchon introduced the principle of applying a perforated band of paper. A continuous roll of paper was punched by hand, in sections, each of which represented one lash or tread, the length of the roll was determined by the number of shots in each repeat of pattern.
The Jacquard machine evolved from this approach. Joseph Marie Jacquard saw that a mechanism could be developed for the production of sophisticated patterns, he combined mechanical elements of other inventors, but innovated. His machine was similar to Vaucanson's arrangement, but he made use of Jean-Baptiste Falcon's individual paste board cards and his square prism: he is credited with having perforated each of its four sides, replacing Vaucanson's perforated "barrel". Jacquard's machine contained eight rows of needles and uprights, where Vaucanson had double row, a modification that enabled him to increase the figuring capacity of the machine. In his first machine, he supported the harness by knotted cords, which he elevated by a single trap board. One of the chief advantages claimed for the Jacquard machine was that unlike previous damask-weaving machines, in which the figuring shed was drawn once for every four shots, with the new apparatus, it could be drawn on every shot, thus producing a fabric with greater definition of outline.
Jacquard's invention had a deep influence on Charles Babbage. In that respect, he is viewed by some authors as a precursor of modern computing science. On the diagram to the right, the cards are fastened into a continuous chain which passes over a square box. At each quarter rotation a new card is presented to the Jacquard head; the box swings from presses against the control rods. Where there is a hole the rod passes through the card and is unmoved whereas if the hole is not punched the rod is pushed to the left; each rod acts upon a hook. When the rod is pushed in the hook moves out of position to the left, a rod, not pushed in leaves its hook in place. A beam rises under the hooks and those hooks in the rest location are raised; each hook can have multiple cords. The cords are attached to their heddle and a return weight; the heddles raise the warp to create the shed. A loom with a 400 hook head might have four threads connected to each hook, resulting in a fabric, 1600 warp ends wide with four repeats of the weave going across.
The term "Jacquard loom" is somewhat inaccurate. It is the "Jacquard head" that adapts to a great many dobby looms that allow the weaving machine to create the intricate patterns seen in Jacquard weaving. Jacquard looms, although common in the textile industry, are not as ubiquitous as dobby looms which are faster and much cheaper to operate. However, unlike jacquard looms, they are not capable of producing so many different weaves from one warp. Modern jacquard looms are controlled by computers in place of the original punched cards, can have thousands of hooks; the threading of a Jacquard loom is so labor-intensive. Subsequent warps are tied into the existing warp with the help of a knotting robot which ties each new thread on individually. For a small loom with only a few thousand warp ends the process of re-threading can take days; the Jacquard machines were mechanical, the fabric design was stored in a series of punched cards which were joined to form a continuous chain. The Jacquards were small and only independently controlled a few warp ends
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds; the plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the New Worlds; the fiber is most spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, it is the most used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land.
China is the world's largest producer of cotton. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years. In the United States, cotton is measured in bales, which measure 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. There are four commercially grown species of cotton, all domesticated in antiquity: Gossypium hirsutum – upland cotton, native to Central America, the Caribbean and southern Florida Gossypium barbadense – known as extra-long staple cotton, native to tropical South America Gossypium arboreum – tree cotton, native to India and Pakistan Gossypium herbaceum – Levant cotton, native to southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula The two New World cotton species account for the vast majority of modern cotton production, but the two Old World species were used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur in colors of white, brown and green, fears of contaminating the genetics of white cotton have led many cotton-growing locations to ban the growing of colored cotton varieties; the word "cotton" has Arabic origins, derived from the Arabic word قطن.
This was the usual word for cotton in medieval Arabic. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century, English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient Romans as an import but cotton was rare in the Romance-speaking lands until imports from the Arabic-speaking lands in the medieval era at transformatively lower prices; the earliest evidence of cotton use in the Indian subcontinent has been found at the site of Mehrgarh and Rakhigarhi where cotton threads have been found preserved in copper beads. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered parts of modern eastern Pakistan and northwestern India between 3300 and 1300 BC; the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India. For example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC.
Cotton bolls discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, have been dated to as early as 5500 BC, but this date has been challenged. More securely dated is the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico between around 3400 and 2300 BC. In Peru, cultivation of the indigenous cotton species Gossypium barbadense has been dated, from a find in Ancon, to c. 4200 BC, was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the Norte Chico and Nazca. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish; the Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it. The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the Wars of Alexander the Great, as his contemporary Megasthenes told Seleucus I Nicator of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica"; this may be a reference to "tree cotton", Gossypium arboreum, a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia: Cotton has been spun and dyed since prehistoric times.
It clothed the people of ancient India and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era; the planting of cotton was common in Merv and Pars of Iran. In Persian poets' poems Ferdowsi's Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the major products including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited Safavid Persia, spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia. During the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Egyptians spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Handheld roller cotton gins had been used in India since the 6th century, was introduced to other countries from there. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in China; the Indian version of the dual-roller gin was preval
Boxer shorts
Boxer shorts are a type of undergarment worn by men. The term has been used in English since 1944 for all-around-elastic shorts, so named after the shorts worn by boxers, for whom unhindered leg movement is important. Boxers are characterized by their loose fit. In 1925, Jacob Golomb, founder of Everlast, designed elastic-waist trunks to replace the leather-belted trunks worn by boxers; these trunks, now known as "boxer trunks" became famous, but were eclipsed by the popular Jockey-style briefs beginning in the late 1930s. Around 1947, boxer shorts started to gain in popularity again; the two styles and boxer shorts, had varying ratios of sales for the following forty years, with strong regional and generational preferences. In 1985, in the U. S. men's briefs were more popular than boxers, with four times as many briefs sold compared to boxers. Around that time many of the men who preferred boxers were older men who became accustomed to wearing them during their time in the U. S. military, best selling color of boxer shorts was white.
Around that year that time boxers were beginning to become popular among young men who wore boxer shorts with varying colors and prints. Boxer shorts got a fashion boost in 1985 when English model and musician Nick Kamen stripped to white Sunspel boxer shorts in a 1950s style "Launderette" in a Levi's commercial. Since the 1990s, some men opt for boxer briefs as a compromise between the two. Most boxer shorts have a fly in front. Boxer shorts manufacturers have a couple of methods of closing the fly: metal snaps or a button or two. However, many boxer shorts on the market do not need a fastening mechanism to close up the fly as the fabric is cut and the shorts are designed to sufficiently overlap and cover the opening; this is known as an open fly design. Since boxer shorts fabric is stretchy, a "balloon seat", a generous panel of loosely fitting fabric in the center rear of the shorts, is designed to accommodate the wearer's various movements bending forward; the most common sewing design of boxer shorts are made with a panel seat that has two seams running on the outer edges of the back seating area, creating a center rear panel.
Most mass-produced commercial boxer shorts are made using this design. Two less common forms of boxer shorts are "yoke front" boxers. Gripper boxers have an elastic waistband like regular boxers but have snaps 3, on the fly and on the waistband so that they open up completely. Yoke front boxers are similar to gripper boxers in that the wide waistband yoke can be opened up and the yoke has three snaps to close it while the fly itself, has no closure mechanism. There are two types of yoke boxers: one in which there is a short piece of elastic on each side of the waistband which snugs up the yoke to fit the waist; this style of underwear was common during World War II, when the rubber needed for elastic waistbands had to be used for military purposes. Boxer shorts are available in white and solid colors including pastels, come in a variety of patterns and prints as well. Additionally, there are innumerable "novelty" boxer short patterns. Boxer shorts are produced using various fabrics including all cotton, cotton/polyester blends, jersey knits and silk.
Some studies have suggested that tight underwear and high temperature are not optimally conductive for sperm production. The testicles are outside the body for cooling because they operate for sperm production at a lower temperature than the rest of the body, boxer shorts allow the testicles to operate within the required temperature range; the compression of the genitals in briefs may cause the temperature to rise and sperm production to fall. There is a similar theory regarding testicular cancer risk. Other sources dispute this theory. A study in the October 1998 Journal of Urology, for example, concluded that underwear type is unlikely to have a significant effect on male fertility. Girl boxers have come onto the market in recent years, they are worn as loungewear. They differ from boyshorts in that they are longer and more resemble their male counterparts. In 1975, a Sears catalog photo of boxer shorts created a recurring urban legend. A model appeared to have part of his penis exposed in the photo, which a Sears spokesperson stated was a printing defect.
Despite widespread press interest at the time, Sears reported that only a few letters were received from the general public, noted that when the image was reprinted in the Spring-Summer catalog, it showed no such flaw. No recall of the catalog occurred; the incident inspired the singer Zoot Fenster's 1975 single "The Man on Page 602". Kacchera Tap pants Etymology OnLine
Taffeta
Taffeta is a crisp, plain woven fabric made from silk or cuprammonium rayons as well as acetate and polyester. The word is Persian in origin and means "twisted woven", it is considered to be a "high-end" fabric, suitable for use in ball gowns, wedding dresses, in interior decoration for curtains or wallcoverings. It is widely used in the manufacture of corsets and corsetry: it yields a more starched-like type of cloth that holds its shape better than many other fabrics. An thin, crisp type of taffeta is called paper taffeta. There are two distinct types of silk taffeta: piece-dyed. Piece-dyed taffeta is used in linings and is quite soft. Yarn-dyed taffeta is much stiffer and is used in evening dresses. Shot silk taffeta was one of the most sought forms of Byzantine silk, may have been the fabric known as purpura. Modern taffeta was first woven until the 1950s in Japan. Warp-printed taffeta or chiné made in France from the eighteenth century onwards, is sometimes called "pompadour taffeta" after Madame de Pompadour.
Today most raw silk taffeta is produced in Pakistan. There in the modern period, handlooms were long used, but since the 1990s it has been 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, which continue to dominate production. Other countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East produce silk taffeta, but these products are not yet equal in quality or competitiveness to those from India; the most deluxe taffetas, are still woven in France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Taffeta has seen use for purposes other than clothing fabric, including the following: On November 4, 1782, taffeta was used by Joseph Montgolfier of France to construct a small, cube-shaped balloon; this was the beginning of many experiments using taffeta balloons by the Montgolfier brothers, led to the first known human flight in a lighter-than-air craft. Synthetic fibre forms of taffeta have been used to simulate the structure of blood vessels.
Tabby cats were so-named in the 1600s due to visual resemblance to a tabby, a type of striped silk taffeta. Dictionary of Textiles, Louis Harmuth. New York: Fairchild Publishing Company, 1915, p. 184 Google Books edition of "Dictionary of Textiles"
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