Fabric with a crinkled or grainy surface, produced through its yarns, construction or finishing.
Crêpe names a surface rather than one fiber or weave. The Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus lists four ways to make it: weaving with hard-twisted yarn, weaving with varied tensions, printing with caustic soda, or embossing. Georgette and crêpe de Chine take the first route, with yarns twisted alternately two to the right and two to the left. A crêpe weave is a separate route: CottonWorks describes warp and filling crossing and floating in random order, with no visible lines or repeat, usually on a dobby or jacquard loom.
So the name alone does not say how a fabric was made. A twist crêpe takes its texture from the yarn, a crêpe weave from the structure. The V&A holds a 2024 Loewe dress in viscose jersey crêpe and a 2022 Erdem gown lined in silk crêpe de Chine.
In job listings
Crêpe is seldom named in a listing title. It belongs to the work of fabric developers, who run trials with mills and keep swatch libraries, and of the seamstresses who sew it; one couture atelier listing divides its seamstresses between fluid and tailored garments. See current fabric developer roles.
