Loden
Also known as: Loden cloth
Coarse, fulled woollen fabric with a dense, water-repellent surface — an Alpine classic for coats, jackets and traditional wear.
Description
Loden is a coarse, fulled woollen fabric made from carded wool yarn whose defining production step is fulling: the loosely woven base cloth is worked under heat, moisture and mechanical friction until the wool fibres felt together and the fabric shrinks by up to 40 %. The result is an extremely dense, wind- and water-repellent fabric whose surface causes water to bead off.
Classically pure sheep's wool (often from robust mountain sheep such as the Tiroler Steinschaf), today also blended with cashmere, alpaca or polyacrylic. Weights 350-700 g/m² (coat loden up to 900 g/m²). Traditional colours are natural brown, anthracite, hunter green and grey-black. The oldest documented loden fulling mill is at Ramsau am Dachstein (about 600 years old).
Uses: coats (loden coat), jackets (loden hunter jacket), capes (loden cape), hats, hunting clothes, folk costume and workwear for the Alpine region. Loden remains valued today as a robust, ecologically authentic natural fabric.
Properties
| Weave type | Plain/twill + heavy fulling |
|---|---|
| Typical fibres | Woollen wool, optional alpaca/cashmere |
| Fabric weight | 350-900 g/m² |
| Use | Coats, jackets, folk wear, hunting |
Related product categories
Sources & references
2- Wikipedia: Loden Wikipedia — Freie Enzyklopädie https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loden
- Textile Institute textileinstitute.org https://www.textileinstitute.org/
