Tips for avoiding pitfalls when buying winter clothes: Learn about several common textile fibers

Every year, after buying winter clothes for the Spring Festival, many friends will have more or less troubles? Whether it is online shopping or going to physical stores, there are always pitfalls when buying winter clothes, either not warm or not comfortable. In fact, if we can accumulate some knowledge of textile fibers, it is easy to avoid these problems. Let us get to know several common textile fibers in winter.

01 Down

Down as a filling material for clothing refers specifically to the fluff that grows on the abdomen of geese and ducks in the shape of reed flowers . It is a mixture of "feather" and "down". Down clothing can only be called down clothing if the "down content" is 50% or above . Down is a dandelion-shaped down flower , consisting of a down core and many radiating down fibers .

The "down content" of down jackets increases by 5% each time, up to 95% . Down jackets that do not have down content marked on them, or whose down content exceeds 95%, or whose "down content" is not an integer multiple of 5%, are all down jackets that do not meet national standards.

The filling volume refers to the total weight of all the down in a down jacket. It is measured in grams . The higher the filling volume, the better the warmth retention performance.

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02 Cashmere

Cashmere should be called goat cashmere accurately, which refers to a thin layer of fine cashmere growing at the root of the coarse hair of goats. The national standard stipulates that the diameter of cashmere cashmere must be 25 microns or less and have the appearance of cashmere fiber .

Cashmere is often blended with other textile fibers. According to GB/T 29862-2013 "Textile Fiber Content Identification", clothing with a cashmere content of more than 30% can be called a cashmere sweater , and clothing with a cashmere content of more than 95% can be labeled as 100% cashmere or pure cashmere sweaters .

It is worth noting that sheep do not produce cashmere, but wool; Australia does not produce cashmere either, because there are no goats there. Therefore, if you encounter clothing marked as cashmere or Australian cashmere, it is basically counterfeit. At the same time, pure cashmere will pill during use, which is mainly related to its fiber characteristics.

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03 Wool

Wool refers to the hair produced by sheep, which is a protein fiber . No matter how fine the wool is, we call it wool, not cashmere. GB/T 29862-2013 "Labeling of Fiber Content of Textiles" stipulates that clothing with a wool content of 30% or more can be called a wool sweater , and a wool content of 95% can be called " pure wool ".

When you smell real wool, you will smell a distinct sheep smell. The most direct way for ordinary consumers to judge wool is by burning it . When wool burns, it shrinks and curls, smokes and bubbles, and emits a special smell of burning hair.

04 Rabbit Fur

Rabbit hair for textiles comes from Angora rabbits and domestic rabbits. The quality of Angora rabbit hair is better than that of domestic rabbit hair.

Rabbit hair can be divided into fluff and coarse hair. The cross section of fluff is nearly circular or irregular quadrilateral, while the cross section of coarse hair is kidney-shaped, elliptical or dumbbell-shaped. They are all in multi-row blocks, contain air, and have strong warmth retention. Due to the low strength of rabbit hair, it is not easy to spin alone, but the price is relatively cheap. Therefore, rabbit hair is often blended with wool or other fibers to weave into fabrics for women's wool, coat wool, and other clothing.

05 Cotton

Cotton is the most widely used and consumed natural textile material in the world. If the cotton content is 95% or above , it is pure cotton fabric and can be labeled as 100% cotton . Generally speaking, fabrics with high cotton fiber content usually have lower formaldehyde content.

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Pure cotton textiles have good moisture absorption and breathability, excellent warmth retention and skin-friendliness. However, pure cotton textiles also have defects such as easy shrinkage, poor wear resistance, and poor elasticity. Therefore, cotton fibers are mostly blended with other textile fibers to make fabrics on the market. It is worth noting that according to the national standard GB/T31888-2015 "School Uniforms for Primary and Secondary School Students", the cotton fiber content of the part of the school uniforms for primary and secondary school students that directly contacts the skin should not be less than 35%.

Author: Cheng Zui Popular Science Creator Winner of the third prize of the Beijing Association for Science and Technology's "Popular Science with Academicians" Popular Science Maker Competition in 2016 and 2018

Auditor: Tang Wei, Senior Engineer, China Fiber Quality Monitoring Center

Produced by: Science Popularization China