What is Natural Fabric?
Natural fabric is woven or knitted from fibres that occur in our natural world. All three sectors of nature; animal, vegetable and mineral produce fibres that can be used in fabric production.
Vegetable, or more commonly classed cellulose-based fibres, include cotton, flax, jute, hemp and bamboo. Each fibre type is derived from a specific part of the plant such seed hair, stem, leaf, husk etc. and consist mainly of cellulose substance.
Animal fibres include wool and silk and consist exclusively of proteins. While wool fabric is most commonly produced from the fleece of sheep, it also includes fleece from alpacas. The hairs or fibres of other animals are also constructed into fabric including rabbit fur, angora fabric and mohair.
Silk is the other notable fibre from an animal, but unlike other animal fibres, it is not made from the hair or fur covering the animal. It is the continuous thread of the spun cocoon of moth larvae. An extensive process is required to produce one silk fibre and in turn, produce silk fabric maintaining its exclusive divine nature.
Mineral fibres are less widely used in production for fashion or interior fabrics but can still be used in an industrial application. Fine drawn threads of metallic fibres can be used on regular textile machinery and are often spun or woven in combination with other fibres to make a length of fabric for industrial use.