Buying guides by country · 8 October 2026 · 3 min read

Muslin, calico and lawn: UK and US fabric names compared

In the UK calico is plain unbleached cotton and muslin is fine and airy; in the US muslin is that plain cotton and calico a small floral print. What to ask for.

Inspiration

The short answer

The same two words mean different cloth on each side of the Atlantic. In Britain, calico is a plain, usually unbleached, medium-weight cotton, and muslin is a fine, soft, open-weave cotton. In the United States, muslin is the name for that plain, unbleached cotton, and calico means a cotton printed with small all-over flowers. So what a British dressmaker calls calico, an American one calls muslin.

South Asia adds a third meaning: mulmul, a very fine, soft cotton that is the original muslin. Lawn, thankfully, means the same thing everywhere.

Muslin: fine in Britain, plain in America

The word muslin is traditionally traced to Mosul, a trading city in today’s Iraq. In British shops it describes a light, airy, slightly loose cotton, the kind used for straining in the kitchen and for soft wraps; very open grades are called butter muslin. In American shops muslin covers a whole range of plain-weave cottons, from fine to quite coarse, and most dressmakers know it as the inexpensive cloth used to make a trial version of a pattern. The open kitchen weave is called cheesecloth there.

Calico: plain in Britain, printed in America

Calico takes its name from Calicut, now Kozhikode, on India’s south-west coast, which exported cotton cloth for centuries. In Britain it means the plain cotton used for trial garments, tote bags and backing. In the US it means a lightweight cotton with a small, dense floral print, the sort associated with quilting and country-style dresses. Ask for calico in a London fabric shop and an American one and you will come away with completely different cloth.

Mulmul, lawn and voile

Mulmul, or malmal, is the South Asian word for the very fine cotton that Bengal was famous for, the cloth that gave muslin its reputation. Today mulmul usually means a soft, light, slightly sheer cotton used for summer kurtas and dupattas. It is far closer to British muslin or to voile than to American muslin.

Lawn is a fine, smooth, plain-weave cotton with a light crispness, named after Laon in France. Voile is lighter and more sheer, with a softer drape, and can be cotton or polyester. Batiste, a name used more in the US, is fine and soft, between the two. Pakistani lawn suits are lawn in this sense, and our lawn fabric guide and lawn vs cotton vs khaddar explain how it compares with heavier cottons such as cambric.

Which name to ask for, country by country

Buying cloth for a kameez or dupatta is easier with the local word. American shops usually sell by the yard and British ones by the metre, and widths vary as much as names; fabric widths explained and buying fabric by the metre cover those.

A summer kameez in the UK: ask for cotton lawn or cotton voile, not calico, which is too stiff and plain unless you want a trial garment.
A summer kameez in the US: ask for cotton lawn, voile or batiste. Muslin will get you trial-garment cloth and calico a quilting print.
A light dupatta anywhere: voile, mulmul or chiffon.
Lining: cotton lawn or voile in the UK; batiste or lawn in the US.

Getting it stitched

If you buy fabric locally, unstitched suit stitching lets you send it to us in Pakistan, after we confirm it suits your design and is enough, and we cut and stitch it to your measurements. Our UK and USA pages cover delivery and currency, and you can start a Stitching Only quote with a photo of the fabric.

Common questions

What is British calico called in America?

Muslin. American dressmakers use muslin for the plain, unbleached cotton that British dressmakers call calico, especially for trial versions of a pattern.

Is muslin a good fabric for a kameez?

British-style fine muslin is lovely in heat but sheer, so it usually needs a lining. American muslin is plainer and a little coarse, fine for a trial garment but rarely chosen for a finished kameez.

Is mulmul the same as muslin?

In origin, yes: mulmul is the South Asian name for the fine cotton that muslin first described. Modern mulmul is soft, light and slightly sheer, much closer to British muslin than to the American kind.

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