A sturdy, tightly woven twill with raised diagonal ribs on its face, made in wool, cotton or other fibers for suits, trousers and coats.
Gabardine is a twill, a weave whose interlacing steps across the cloth in a diagonal line; the Museum at FIT describes gabardine’s diagonal ribs as raised, closely set and distinct. CottonWorks groups it with denim and chino among the heavier bottom-weight fabrics woven in 3×1 twill, a structure that gives higher tear strength. The Getty vocabulary describes it as usually of fine worsted yarn, and FIT calls it a staple of men’s suiting, but the American Heritage Dictionary allows cotton, wool or rayon. The name fixes the weave, not the fiber.
Nor is the cloth the coat. Burberry says its founder invented its gabardine in 1879 and that its trench coat is made from it. It describes its signature gabardine as cotton, lightweight, breathable and durable, and makes it at the Burberry Mill in Keighley, Yorkshire.
In job listings
Gabardine is rarely named in listings. Its nearest roles are in outerwear and tailoring: outerwear designers, pattern makers and sample garment tailors, and fabric developers who brief mills, develop treatments and finishes, and test fabrics against performance standards. See current outerwear roles.
