BREATHABILITY

Continuous openings run through the cloth, letting air, heat and water vapour pass. In clothing this carries the warmth and moisture the body gives off away from the skin, working against the feeling of being stifled. The same property — not shutting air out — extends beyond clothing to filters, netting and industrial materials. The point is not that a thin cloth lets wind through: the passage for air is built into the weave structure itself.

TRANSPARENCY

By changing the size and arrangement of the space between threads, Leno Weaving controls how light passes through. A fine, even openness; a net-like structure with larger apertures; a soft haze through which the other side is just visible — the degree of transparency can be designed on purpose. Combined with the colour, thickness, lustre and material of the yarn, the cloth can be made to do more than transmit light: it can be given reflection and shadow as well.

TEXTURE

Because the crossing and locking of the threads appears on the surface itself, the cloth carries a distinctive relief, shadow and depth. Changing the thickness, twist, material, density and lustre of the yarn can make it smooth, coarse and sculptural, or fine and intricate. The way the threads overlap and the space reads shifts with the viewing angle and the fall of light. The surface can therefore be designed through the weave structure as the pattern itself, rather than printed on afterwards.