A cut-pile cotton textile whose surface is composed of parallel cords—wales—that run the length of the fabric, creating a texture both tactile and visual.
Wide-wale corduroy (4–8 wales per inch) is heavy and structural. Pinwale (14–20) is fine and soft. The wales are produced by weaving extra weft threads and cutting them, like velvet but arranged in columns.
Etymologically dubious but charming: corde du roi, the king’s cord. Laborers wore it for durability. The corduroy waistcoat of the working class was built for years of wear, its ridges collecting the dust of labor.
The corduroy jacket with elbow patches became the uniform of the professor. In the 1970s it was counterculture fabric. Today it signals heritage, honesty, and a fabric that never pretended to be luxurious but was always authentic.
