What Ounces Really Mean
What Ounces Really Mean
Weight is the number everyone quotes and almost nobody understands.
Somebody says fourteen ounce like it settles the argument. It does not settle anything. Here is what the number is.
Mass Over Area
Fabric weight is mass over area. It is not thickness and it is not quality.
In the United States it is ounces per square yard. In most of the world it is grams per square meter. One ounce per square yard is about 33.9 gsm. So 8oz is roughly 271 gsm, 12oz is roughly 407, and 14oz is roughly 475.
The Catch With Denim
Denim is sometimes quoted per linear yard instead of per square yard, which depends on the width the mill is running. Two published numbers do not always compare cleanly. If you are comparing seriously, ask which one you are looking at.
What the Number Tells You
Weight tells you how a cloth will hang, whether it holds a crease, how a seam will sit, and how warm it will be. Light cloth drapes and moves. Heavy cloth holds a shape and takes a season or two to break in.
Weight does not tell you whether the cloth is any good. Construction does. A badly spun heavy yarn makes heavy bad cloth.
Our Numbers
Our selvedge sits in the 13oz range, woven for us on shuttle looms in Okayama.
The corduroy is 8oz, woven for us in Japan, then washed.
The terry runs in two builds. 20oz crews made in Japan, and 30oz made in the USA and cut and sewn in Seattle. The 30oz is about as heavy as a sweat can be made before it stops being wearable, which is exactly where I wanted it.
Every one of those numbers is a decision about how the piece will live. None of them is a bragging right.
A Way Of Life.
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