Toile

This article is about a French canvas fabric. For the French netting fabric, see Tulle (netting). For the sanitation fixture, see toilet.
Toile
Dress from Toile de Jouy
Yves Saint Laurent's studio, showing a toile for a safari jacket
A photo of toile de jouy fabric on a French-reproduction-style chair

Toile (French for "canvas") is a textile fabric comparable to fine batiste with a cloth weave. Natural silk or chemical fiber filaments are usually used as materials.[1] The word toile can refer to the fabric itself or to a test garment sewn from calico. The French term toile entered the English language around the 12th century, was used in the Middle Ages[2] and meanwhile has disappeared.[3]

  1. ^ Alfons Hofer: Textil- und Modelexikon. 7. Auflage, Band 2, Deutscher Fachverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, keyword “toile”, ISBN 3-87150-518-8
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary: "toile"; earliest citation from 1561.
  3. ^ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English ISBN 019 431 5339, 2000, page 1367