Materials
What each cloth is, how it behaves under lights and after a year of Sundays, and which garments it suits. Written so you can choose without holding it — though we would rather you held it.
Our current range: satin for chasubles, with orphreys in satin or velvet depending on the design; satin for dalmatics and chalice veils; satin, velvet, cotton or brocade (damask) for stoles; cotton for cassocks and clergy shirts; cotton or wool for religious habits. Each product page names its cloth. The other cloths below are described for reference.
The specimens
Same crop, same light, same three facts on every card, so they can actually be compared. Colour on a screen is a promise nobody can keep — ask for swatches before a set.
Figured, woven pattern
The pattern is woven in with extra weft threads rather than printed on, which is why the traditional motifs have depth and catch light from the side.
Figured, tone on tone
Woven so the pattern appears in the same colour as the ground and resolves only as you approach. The quieter relation of brocade.
Tailoring cloth
Nothing else behaves like it: it holds a pressed edge, drapes without clinging, breathes, and wears for decades.
Festal cloth
A lustre no synthetic quite reproduces, and a depth of dye that shows in the reds and violets particularly.
Working cloth
Better than its reputation: a good crepe drapes softly, holds colour, resists creasing, and comes out of a case wearable.
Next to the skin
The historic cloth of the alb, the amice and the altar linens, and still the most comfortable thing to wear in heat.
Weight and presence
Unmatched in an orphrey, a cope hood or a Lenten array. Punishing as a whole chasuble in a warm church.
Trim
The woven trims that edge an orphrey. This is where the eye goes first, and where a considered garment separates from a plain one.
Cloth decides almost everything about a vestment: how it hangs, how it reads from the back of a nave, how heavy it is in August, and how it looks after fifteen years of Sundays. The specimens above cover each cloth we work in. What follows is the part that applies to all of them.
Two garments in the same colour and the same cut can look nothing alike because of weight. A heavy cloth falls in few, deep folds and reads as substantial; a light one falls in many shallow ones and moves. Neither is better. A Gothic chasuble is designed around a cloth with enough weight to fall from the shoulders in a full sweep, and made up in something light it looks limp. A conical chasuble in a heavy brocade, worn by someone slight, becomes an unmanageable amount of fabric.
When you are choosing, ask two questions: how does it need to hang, and how long will it be worn for? A cloth that photographs beautifully and is unbearable through a three-hour Easter Vigil is a bad choice however good it looks.
The lining is not a detail. Where a garment has one, it carries the weight of the outer cloth, decides whether the garment slips on over a cassock, and is usually the first thing to fail. Not every garment is lined: each product page describes how that piece is made, and if you want to know whether a particular garment is lined before you order, write and ask.
The orphrey is the band — the Y, the pillar, the cross — that carries the ornament of a chasuble or cope. Galloon and braid are the woven trims that edge it. This is where the eye goes first, and where the difference between a considered garment and a plain one is made.
Our braids run from simple woven galloon to substantial metallic-thread work. As a rule: the busier the ground cloth, the plainer the braid should be, and the plainer the cloth, the more the braid can do.
Machine embroidery uses fine rayon or polyester threads and is precise, repeatable and comparatively inexpensive. Hand embroidery uses stranded silks, goldwork threads and couched metallic work, and has a physical depth machine work cannot reach — it sits above the cloth rather than in it.
We will always tell you which method a garment uses. We will never describe machine work as hand work.
Churches are lit by warm tungsten, cool fluorescent, daylight through coloured glass, or some combination that changes through the day. The same violet chasuble can read blue under one and almost brown under another.
Two practical consequences. First, judge a swatch in the building it will be worn in, not at a desk. Second, if a garment must match vestments you already own, send us a photograph taken in that church and, ideally, a small piece of the existing cloth — a hem allowance or a spare maniple is usually enough.
| Garment | Usual choice | Also works |
|---|---|---|
| Chasuble | Brocade or damask | Silk blend; wool for a Lenten array |
| Cope | Brocade | Damask, velvet for the hood |
| Dalmatic | Matching the chasuble | — |
| Stole | Matching the chasuble | Crepe for everyday use |
| Cassock | Wool or wool blend | Tropical wool in heat |
| Alb and cassock-alb | Polyester crepe | Linen or linen blend |
| Surplice and cotta | Cotton or crepe | Linen |
| Clergy shirt | Cotton or cotton blend | — |
| Habit | Wool or wool blend | To the rule of the community |
| Frontal and burse set | Brocade or velvet | Damask |
We will send swatches of anything you are choosing between before you commit, and for a full set we recommend it without reservation. Write to sales@theclergycouture.com with the cloths and colours you are considering and the garment they are for.
Related reading: caring for vestments, the liturgical colour guide, a glossary of vestments.
For the longer, fully sourced versions of what is summarised here, see these guides. The Clergy Couture Journal is our reference site, written by the workroom and kept separate from the shop.
Swatches
Tell us which cloths you are choosing between and the garment they are for, and we will send swatches before you commit to a set.
