Longcloth (or long cloth) refers to a plain

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

originally made in comparatively long pieces. The name was applied particularly to cloth made in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The long cloth made at

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

was of the length of 37 yards. Longcloth, which is now commonly bleached, includes several various qualities. It is heavier than

cambric Cambric or batiste, is a fine dense cloth. It is a lightweight plain-weave fabric, originally from the commune of Cambrai (in present-day northern France), woven greige (neither bleached nor dyed), then bleached, piece-dyed, and often g ...

, and finer than medium or Mexican. In the early 1900s, as it was used principally for underclothing and shirts, most of the longcloth sold in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

passed through the shirt and underclothing manufacturers' hands who sold it to the shopkeepers. However, there was still considerable if decreasing retail trade-in piece-goods. In the UK in the early 20th century, the lower kinds of longcloth, which were made from American cotton, corresponded in quality to the better kinds of shirting made for the East, but the best longcloths were made from Egyptian cotton and were fine and fairly costly goods. Nowadays, longcloth designates a cotton fabric which is of high quality, very soft, coarsely woven, and very often used to make underwear and infants' clothing.

Ghati

''Ghati'' was a cloth with a highly glazed surface, refined in texture and strong in strength. It was a particular type of cotton fabric. It was a premium quality long cloth and hence expensive too. Ghati was a lighter ( in texture) than the Sussi. The material was affordable to wealthy persons only, also called ''ghatti''.

Rahon Rahon is a city and a municipal council in the district Shaheed Bhagat Singh of the Indian state of Punjab. Rahon is in Doaba region of Punjab. Doaba also known as Bist Doab, is the region of Punjab, India that lies between the Beas River an ...

, a town in the district Jalandhar of

Punjab, India Punjab (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Himachal ...

, had an excellent reputation for this variety. Its production ceased by the close of the nineteenth century.

Patterns and use

Before English clothes emerged in Punjab, Ghati was used for

sheets A bed sheet is a rectangular piece of cloth used either singly or in a pair as bedding, which is larger in length and width than a mattress, and which is placed immediately above a mattress or bed, but below blankets and other bedding (such as ...

shirts A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. ...

pajamas Pajamas ( US) or pyjamas (Commonwealth) (), sometimes colloquially shortened to PJs, jammies, jam-jams, or in South Asia night suits, are several related types of clothing worn as nightwear or while lounging or performing remote work from hom ...

and

angarkha Angarkha is an outer robe with long sleeves which was worn by men in South Asia. By the 19th-century it had become the generally accepted attire of an educated man in public. It had evolved from the Persian cape ''balaba'' or ''chapkan'' as a ...

. Then Ghati was available in plain white and also in various patterns of damascene, flowered and ''Chashma-e-Bulbul'' meaning "Nightingale's eye"

Latha

Longcloth was also termed as Latha was preferred for Kashmiri artwork, i.e., Amli work with silk threads. Latha was also used in certain dresses.''Men ' s dress - Tribesmen normally wear very simple dress which is usually made of coarse cloth or latha cloth .'' Page 16https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Population_Census_of_Pakistan_1961_West/07IZAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=latha+cloth&dq=latha+cloth&printsec=frontcover

Pauni

Pauni was another coarse variety of cotton cloth from the Punjab region. It was one-third of the length of the Longcloth.

References

;Attribution * Woven fabrics Textile arts of India {{Textile-stub

Ghati

Patterns and use

Latha

Pauni

See also

References