Fabric names in Urdu and English: a plain list

Names with a close English match

These translate neatly, though a few carry an extra meaning worth knowing.

• Kapra: cloth or fabric in general.
• Suti (also sooti): cotton, as in suti kapra, cotton cloth.
• Malmal (often shortened to mal): muslin, a soft, fine, lightly woven cotton. Note that in English, muslin can also mean a plain, coarser cotton used for practice garments.
• Makhmal: velvet. Our velvet guide covers wearing and stitching it.
• Resham: silk, and also silk thread, which is why resham work means embroidery in silk or silky thread. Reshmi means silky and may describe a look rather than the fibre. See our resham embroidery guide.
• Jaali: net or mesh, and more broadly any openwork lattice, including embroidered or cut openwork. Our net and lace guide covers net fabrics.
• Ooni: woollen, from oon, wool.
• Atlas: satin.
• Astar: lining.
• Kinari: an edging or border trim.
• Dhaga: thread.

Names without an exact English word

These are where translation goes wrong most often, so describe the cloth as well as naming it.

• Khaddar: historically a thick, hand-spun and handwoven cotton, related to the Indian word khadi. In shops today it is a textured winter fabric, sometimes a blend. Homespun cotton is the nearest English, but not exact. See our khaddar guide.
• Latha: a plain, smooth, closely woven cotton, traditionally white or off-white, used for everyday shalwar kameez. English shops might call something similar plain cotton, long cloth or poplin, and Pakistani shops use the name a little differently from one another.
• Karandi: a crisp, grainy winter fabric whose fibre varies between brands. There is no English equivalent; our karandi guide explains it.
• Khaddi: a handloom, so khaddi cloth means handwoven cloth rather than a particular fibre.
• Lawn and cambric: English words used in Pakistan, but with a narrower meaning: lawn is the fine summer cotton and cambric the denser one.

When a name and a label disagree

Shop talk is in Urdu and labels are usually in English, so the same cloth can carry two names. Trust the fibre content on the label over either name: a cloth called silk may be art silk, a man-made fibre, and a cloth called reshmi may contain no silk at all. Our guide to reading an unstitched suit label shows where to look.

When you write to us, either language is fine. Use the name you know and add a photo of the cloth and its label; for Stitching Only we confirm the fabric is suitable before you send anything, and you can start a quote here.