Drape
Also searched as: drapability, fabric fall
How a fabric falls and folds under its own weight.
In detail
Drape describes the folds and silhouette a fabric forms when supported at some points and allowed to hang elsewhere. Its behavior reflects several interacting properties, including bending resistance, deformation between yarns and its own weight. Drape is experienced at the fabric level, so composition alone is an incomplete description.
The science and numbers
Drape is usually quantified with a drapemeter. A circular specimen is centered on a smaller horizontal disk and allowed to fall into folds, and light from below casts its projected outline. The drape coefficient is (shadow area minus disk area) divided by (specimen area minus disk area), times 100. A fabric that stayed perfectly flat would score 100 percent and one hanging straight down would approach 0, so lower values indicate a more fluid drape. The original technique traced the shadow onto a paper ring, then cut out and weighed the shadow portion, using paper mass as a proxy for area; image analysis now performs the same measurement, for example in ISO 9073-9 for nonwovens. Drape coefficient can be interpreted alongside bending rigidity from the cantilever method of ASTM D1388 and the bending and shear values measured by KES-F.
A practical example
Compare two equally sized swatches over the same rounded support. One may form broad, structured folds while the other falls into smaller folds. That comparison helps a maker choose between a sculptural jacket and a flowing skirt without treating either result as universally better.
What to distinguish
Drape and hand are related but different observations: one concerns hanging behavior, the other touch. A fabric can feel soft in the hand yet retain a relatively structured silhouette. Evaluate a representative finished sample.
Origins and history
Quantitative drape work rests on bending studies. Peirce's 1930 cantilever test estimated bending stiffness from the overhanging length of a fabric strip and the angle its free end drops under its own weight, and a modified form is the preferred method in ASTM D1388. Cusick's 1968 paper 'The measurement of fabric drape' in the Journal of the Textile Institute (volume 59) described the cut-and-weigh shadow technique, and the Cusick drapemeter became the standard way to report a drape coefficient; drape testers are still built to BS 5058 and ISO 9073-9.
Related terms
Sources & further reading
- NC State: Kawabata Evaluation System
- CottonWorks: Hand
- ScienceDirect Topics: Drape coefficient
- Journal of the Textile Institute: The Measurement of Fabric Drape (Cusick, 1968)
- Textile Research Journal: Improved accuracy in the determination of flexural rigidity by the Peirce cantilever test (ASTM D1388)
Technical references reviewed 2026-09-22. Examples are illustrative. Industry organizations and manufacturers describe their own fields; their references are not independent product endorsements. Figures are approximate and depend on the stated test conditions.