Reading Vintage Wool: Gabardine vs Crepe vs Flannel

"Wool" tells you almost nothing on its own. A 1960s wool gabardine suit and a 1980s wool boucle cardigan are both technically wool, but they're built for different bodies, different seasons, and different purposes. The weave matters more than the fibre.

Here's how I read wool when I'm grading a piece — what each weave does, what era used it most, and how to tell whether a listing is selling you the wool you actually want.

Gabardine

Tight, diagonal twill weave with a smooth surface. The defining suiting fabric of mid-century tailoring. Holds a pressed crease for decades. Sheds rain reasonably well. Resists pilling almost completely.

Era peak: 1950s through 1980s, with the 1970s and early 80s being the densest, heaviest weights you'll find.

What it's used for: suit jackets, trousers, pencil skirts, structured coats.

How to identify: the surface has a fine diagonal grain visible if you tilt it to the light. It feels firm and slightly cool, not soft. A wool gabardine trouser holds its crease overnight on a hanger.

What to look for: the densest weights are the best buys. A heavy gabardine blazer from a good 80s house (Escada, Max Mara, Pedro del Hierro) outperforms almost anything you can buy new today.

Crepe

A wool with a crinkled, slightly grainy surface from highly twisted yarn. Drapes softer than gabardine. Lighter weight, more fluid.

Era peak: 1930s and 40s for the original wool crepe dresses, then again in the 1970s and 80s for fluid wide-leg trousers and bias-cut skirts.

What it's used for: dresses, fluid trousers, draped tops, lightweight suits.

How to identify: the surface looks pebbled or sandy from a short distance. Doesn't hold a crisp crease — it falls in soft folds. Slightly stretchy under the fingers.

What to look for: wool crepe dresses from the 70s and 80s are wildly underpriced relative to their wear. They hang on a body the way modern viscose pretends to. Look at YSL Rive Gauche, Sonia Rykiel, and small French ateliers.

Flannel

A softer, brushed wool with a fuzzy nap on the surface. The texture comes from the finishing process — the cloth is brushed after weaving to raise short fibres.

Era peak: 1940s through 1960s, when grey flannel suiting was the universal office uniform. Strong revival in the 90s as minimalism took over.

What it's used for: trousers, suits, blazers, school-uniform-style skirts.

How to identify: the surface is soft and slightly hazy. The weave isn't visible from a normal distance — the nap covers it. Feels warmer in the hand than gabardine.

What to look for: good wool flannel is one of the warmest fabrics in vintage suiting. Beware of pilling on older pieces — the nap is the first thing to go. A flannel piece with no pills at the inner thigh, underarm, and bag-strap zone is a piece that was barely worn.

Boucle

A textured weave using looped yarn — the surface looks like tiny knotted curls. Often a blend with mohair, alpaca, or silk for added texture.

Era peak: 1950s and 60s for the Chanel-defining boucle suits, then 1980s for oversized boucle blazers and cardigans.

What it's used for: structured jackets, evening coats, weekend cardigans.

How to identify: the loops are visible on both sides of the cloth. Often two or more yarn colours twisted together. Has a slight bounce when you press it.

What to look for: the best vintage boucle pieces hold their shape because the underlying construction is solid — heavy lining, weighted hems, properly set sleeves. A boucle jacket that's lost its shape was never built well.

Tweed

A coarse, rough-surfaced wool, originally from the British Isles. Includes Harris Tweed (handwoven on the Outer Hebrides), Donegal (Irish, with characteristic colour flecks), and Saxony (softer, finer).

Era peak: never out of fashion, but the strongest vintage finds are 1960s–1980s.

What it's used for: jackets, overcoats, skirts, hats.

How to identify: rough to the hand, often with visible coloured flecks. Harris Tweed has a registered orb mark on the lining label.

What to look for: a real Harris Tweed jacket with the orb label is a buy at almost any price under €100. The cloth lasts indefinitely if it's not eaten by moths.

Cashmere and wool-cashmere blends

Cashmere is finer and softer than sheep's wool, from the undercoat of cashmere goats. Pure cashmere is light, warm, expensive. Most "cashmere" vintage is a blend — usually 30% to 80% cashmere with the rest being merino wool.

Era peak: 1980s and 90s for the densest blends. Pieces from this era used twice the cashmere of modern equivalents at the same price point.

What to look for: a piece labelled "100% cashmere" should feel weightless and softer than any sheep's wool. A "cashmere blend" with no percentage stated is usually 10% cashmere or less — fine, but priced accordingly.

Pilling check: all cashmere pills with wear. Pilling on the underarm or inside elbow is normal. Pilling across the front of a piece means it was worn hard and washed wrong. A cashmere depiller (battery-powered fabric shaver) restores most pieces in ten minutes.

How I grade wool

When a wool piece arrives, I work through it in this order:

  1. Pick it up. Is the weight what I'd expect for the era and weave?
  2. Turn it inside out. Is the lining intact? Are the seams clean?
  3. Check the high-wear zones — underarms, inner thighs, back of the neck, hem.
  4. Look for moth damage. Tiny round holes near seams are the giveaway.
  5. Check the label for fibre composition. If the piece feels like wool but the tag says "wool blend" with no percentage, the wool content is probably under 50%.

The single most useful thing to remember

The weight of a wool piece tells you more than the label. Modern wool — even "100% wool" labelled — is spun thinner, woven looser, and finished cheaper than wool from the 70s and 80s. A vintage wool coat that feels heavy in the hand is almost always built to a higher standard than a new coat at the same price.

Where wool pieces show up in the shop

The wool I stock comes mostly from estate sales in northern Spain, where the climate keeps wool in better shape. Look in:

If you want a close-up of the weave, a fabric tag, or a measurement before buying, email hi@bohemefolk.com and I'll send it.

— Victoria

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