Choosing the right fabric is one of the most important decisions you will make as a clothing brand. The difference between a fabric that looks luxurious and a fabric that actually is luxury is not always obvious when you are shopping online or receiving a supplier quote.
A fabric can look great in a product image and feel completely wrong once it arrives. It can photograph beautifully in a sample, then pill, shrink, or fade after a few washes. If you are building a brand in the mid-to-high end of the market, (what we call a bridge brand) getting your fabric quality right is non-negotiable.
So, how do you actually verify that you are picking a luxury fabric? Here is our guide to the tools, tests, and processes that make the difference.
Start With the Fabric Card
If you are working with an experienced clothing manufacturer, the first thing you should be presented with is a fabric card.
A fabric card has a physical swatch for each colour and a larger swatch for ‘hand-feel’ this is typically around A6 size. The hand feel swatch gives you a better idea of how the fabric will drape and feel to the skin, while the smaller swatches are for colour representation. A good fabric card will include:
• The fabric name (e.g. French Terry, Single Jersey, Interlock)
• The composition (e.g. 100% Cotton, 60% Cotton / 40% Polyester)
• The weight in GSM (grams per square metre)
• The fabric code and colourway reference
• Any relevant finish information (e.g. brushed, mercerised, enzyme washed)
These cards give you something you simply cannot get from a digital catalogue: the ability to touch and feel the fabric before committing to it.
At Hook and Eye UK, we always work from physical fabric cards during design sessions. It sounds simple, but it is the single most effective way to avoid choosing the wrong material for your garment.
The Fabric Library — Why It Matters
Not all manufacturers have the same depth of fabric options, and the range available to you will have a direct impact on the quality ceiling you can reach.
At our Birmingham studio, we maintain a library of nearly 1000 fabric samples which is always increasing. These are physical swatches, organised and catalogued so that during a tech pack and design session, we can pull out the right options for your garment type, your target weight, and your price point, all in front of you.
Having this kind of reference library on hand means:
• Fabrics can be compared side by side rather than making decisions in isolation
• You can feel the difference between a 350 GSM and a 500 GSM heavyweight cotton before committing
• You can immediately spot if a fabric has the right drape and structure for your silhouette
• Our designers can guide you towards the fabrics that perform best across sampling and bulk for your usage requirements
It also means that when your tech pack goes to the factory, the fabric specification is tied to a real, tested material — not just a description that leaves room for interpretation.
Online Only Brands
If you're wondering how we support our online clients, the process is simple. Our experienced designer has extensive industry knowledge and will guide you through every step of the fabric selection process. Fabrics can be also posted for verification.
What Is GSM?
GSM stands for grams per square metre. Here is a rough guide to what the numbers mean in practice:
• 140–180 GSM — Lightweight. Fine for summer tees and layering pieces.
• 200–240 GSM — Mid-weight. The standard range for most everyday streetwear tees.
• 300–450 GSM — Heavyweight. This is where fabrics start to feel heavy — substantial, structured, and satisfying to wear.
• 500 GSM and above — Ultra-heavyweight. Used in premium fleece, oversized hoodies, and garments where the weight itself is part of the brand statement.
For a bridge brand, the mid-to-luxury tier that sits between high street basics and designer labels, you are typically looking at 280 GSM and above for your core pieces. Anything lower and the fabric can feel thin or insubstantial, which is immediately noticeable to a customer in that market.
GSM is not a measure of quality, but it is an easy thing to specify in your tech pack if you have someone guiding you with fabric knowledge.
Abrasion Testing — Does It Hold Up?
Abrasion resistance is the measure of how well a fabric holds up against the friction it experiences during everyday use, rubbing against other surfaces, repeated movement at seam points, and general wear.
Poor abrasion resistance leads to:
• Pilling — small balls of fibre forming on the surface of the fabric
• Surface wear — the fabric thinning or dulling in high-contact areas
• Seam breakdown — stitching and fabric weakening at stress points
The industry standard test for abrasion resistance is the Martindale test. It measures how many rubs a fabric can withstand before it shows visible signs of wear. As a rough guide:
• Under 10,000 rubs — Suitable for decorative use only
• 10,000–20,000 rubs — Light domestic use
• 20,000+ rubs — General garment use and everyday wear
• 40,000+ rubs — Heavy-duty, performance-grade durability
When sourcing fabric for a brand that positions itself at the luxury or bridge level, asking your supplier or manufacturer for abrasion test results is entirely reasonable, and a credible supplier will be able to provide them. If they cannot, that is worth noting.
At Hook and Eye UK, we work with fabrics from suppliers who maintain consistent quality standards, and we can guide you on what to expect and what to ask for when evaluating new materials.
REACH Compliance — What It Is and Why It Matters
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It is a European Union regulation, also adopted and maintained in the UK post-Brexit, that governs the use of chemical substances in products, including textiles.
In practical terms, REACH compliance means that the fabric and dyes used in your garments do not contain harmful chemicals above legally permitted levels. This covers things like:
• Restricted azo dyes (which can release carcinogenic aromatic amines)
• Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and chromium VI
• Formaldehyde is used in fabric finishes
• Flame retardants and other chemical treatments
Why does this matter for your brand? A few reasons:
Legal compliance. If you are selling garments in the UK or EU, REACH compliance is not optional. Non-compliant products can be rejected, recalled, or result in significant fines.
Customer safety. Genuinely luxury fabrics are produced with safe, properly tested chemical processes. If a supplier cannot demonstrate compliance, that is a red flag about the quality of their production standards overall.
Brand reputation. As consumer awareness of textile chemistry grows, particularly among the sustainability-conscious customers that bridge brands attract, being able to confirm your fabrics are REACH compliant is increasingly a commercial asset, not just a legal checkbox.
When working with new fabric suppliers, always request a REACH compliance certificate or test report. Reputable suppliers issue these as standard.
Wash Testing — The Most Underrated Quality Check
The fabric that goes into your sample is the same fabric that needs to come back from the wash looking and feeling just as good as it did on day one – all purchasers will expect a garment to age during it’s lifecycle but this should be a slow process.
Wash testing is simple in concept: you wash the fabric or a finished sample under the conditions your care label will specify, then evaluate what has changed. But the results.
What wash testing reveals:
• Colour fastness — does the dye bleed, fade, or transfer to other fabrics?
• Shrinkage — does the garment maintain roughly (allow for up to a 5% change) its original measurements after washing?
• Pilling — does the surface start to pill after just a few cycles?
• Handle change — does the fabric soften, stiffen, or lose its structure?
• Seam integrity — do the stitched areas hold, or do they start to distort?
For a luxury garment, the standard you are aiming for is clear: the fabric should look and perform consistently after repeated washing at the temperature specified on the care label.
Our advice is to always wash test your sample before signing off on bulk production. Do not just wear it and assess it visually; actually run it through several wash cycles. If the fabric cannot hold up to wash testing during development, it will not hold up for your customers either, and that is a very expensive problem to fix after bulk manufacture.
Other Signals of Fabric Quality to Look For
Alongside the formal tests and documentation, there are a number of things an experienced designer can assess by touch and observation when evaluating fabric quality:
• Evenness of construction. Quality fabrics have consistent weight and texture across the entire width. Uneven areas or visible inconsistencies in the weave or knit are a sign of lower-grade production.
• Colour consistency. The colour should be uniform with no patchiness or variation, particularly important if you are matching pieces across a collection.
• Recovery after stretching. For stretch fabrics, the material should return to its original shape without distortion or bagging. Keep in mind this does depend on the composition – for example, nylon fabrics have much better stretch recovery than polyester based fabrics.
• Pilling by hand. A quick rough of the fabric against itself for 30 seconds will often reveal how prone a fabric is to pilling in real wear, long before any formal test.
• Finish consistency. If a fabric has a brushed or treated finish, it should feel the same across the entire swatch, not just in certain areas.
These assessments come with experience, which is one of the reasons that working with a designer who has handled hundreds of fabrics is so valuable when you are building your first collection.
Final Thoughts
Picking a luxury fabric is not a single decision; it is a process. It involves seeing and feeling the fabric in person, understanding how it performs under testing, verifying that it meets safety and compliance standards, and confirming that it holds up through washing and real wear.
The brands that get this right are the ones that invest in the development stage properly, rather than making fabric decisions based on supplier descriptions and digital swatches alone.
If you are unsure where to start, or you want to work through your fabric options with someone who has done this hundreds of times, that is exactly what our design sessions are designed for.
How Hook and Eye UK Can Help
At Hook and Eye UK, fabric selection is one of the core things we work through with every client during their Tech Pack and Design Session. Our designers bring real experience and a genuine passion for getting this right.
In a session with us, we:
• Work through our library of nearly 1000 fabric samples to find the right options for your garment
• Assess weight, handle, composition, and finish with you in real time
• Guide you on what quality tests to request from suppliers
• Specify your chosen fabric precisely in your tech pack to avoid factory misinterpretation
• Advise on wash testing protocols before you approve your sample for bulk
Book a Tech Pack & Design Session with Hook and Eye UK and make sure your fabric choice is one you can stand behind.
Hope you found this helpful,
H&E team :)
