Reading the label
The lining problem
A lining does three jobs. It lets a garment slide on over other clothes, it hides the seams, and it gives a loosely woven cloth a stable layer to hang from. Done well it is invisible. Done cheaply it is the reason a wool coat feels clammy, a silk dress sticks in July, and a tailored jacket wears out from the inside before the cloth does.
Most sites fold the lining into one composition line, or leave it off entirely. We read it separately on every piece, show it on the card, and let you filter on it. This page is why.
- Most common lining
- Polyester
- Best lining
- Silk or cupro
- Often best
- No lining at all
Why it matters more than the shell
The shell faces the room. The lining faces you. A coat that is 100% wool outside and 100% polyester inside is a wool coat in the photo and a polyester coat on your body. Breathability, warmth without sweat, how it smells after a long day. All of that is decided by the layer nearest your skin, and that is the layer the product page is least likely to describe.
Lined, with nothing after it, is not a composition. It is a retailer deciding you would rather not know.
The linings, ranked
- Unlined, in a dense cloth. Boiled wool, melton, heavy flannel, most knitwear, denim and canvas need no lining to hold their shape. Nothing synthetic against you, nothing to tear, and the coat gets relined never.
- Silk. The classic. Breathes, slides, warm in winter and cool in summer. Expensive, and it wears through at the underarm in a decade of hard use, which is the one honest reason tailors moved away from it.
- Cupro. Made from cotton linter in a cellulose process. Cool, silky, hard wearing, and the best lining short of silk. Bemberg is the brand name you will see.
- Cotton and cotton voile. Breathable and honest, with a little friction, so it suits dresses and jackets more than coats you pull on over a sweater.
- Viscose. Breathes better than polyester, weaker when wet, and fine in a dress. We show it as regenerated cellulosic and do not count it as natural.
- Acetate. Shiny, cheap, and the lining that sweat marks and splits first. Common in tailoring at the middle of the market.
- Polyester and nylon. Slides well, costs nothing, does not breathe, and outlives the garment. The default in most of the market, and the reason this page exists.
Where it hides
- Tailoring. Nearly every blazer is lined, usually fully, and the lining fiber is on the label about half the time.
- Coats. The warmer the photo, the more likely the lining is polyester. Look for unlined boiled wool, or a named natural lining.
- Dresses and skirts. A silk or wool shell over a polyester slip is the most common way a natural fiber dress stops being one.
- Knitwear. Rarely lined. When a sweater lists a second composition it is usually a contrast panel or a trim, and we label it that way.
What we do about it
Every card shows the lining as its own line, exactly as the retailer published it. When the retailer says lined and nothing more, the card says lining not disclosed. The filter rail has a natural lining only switch, and the fiber exclusions read the lining as well as the shell, so excluding polyester excludes a polyester lining too.