Menswear, plainly defined.
26 terms across fabric, construction, style, and fit. Every word a product review uses is here, defined without the marketing.
// Fabric
13 termsCashmere
A luxury wool from cashmere goats — extremely soft, lightweight, and warm. Quality varies enormously; price is a rough proxy.
French terry
Loopback terry with the inside loops sheared and brushed for warmth and softness. Heavier and warmer than loopback; less defined surface.
GSM
Grams per square meter — the standard unit for fabric weight. Higher GSM = heavier, denser, often more durable.
Linen
A bast-fiber fabric made from flax. Lightweight, breathable, and naturally cooling — the warm-climate workhorse. Wrinkles immediately and aggressively.
Loopback terry
A knit fabric with smooth jersey on the outside and uncut yarn loops on the inside. The classic sweatshirt construction.
Merino wool
A fine-fiber wool from Merino sheep — softer, less itchy, and more breathable than standard wool. Used in everything from base layers to mid-weight knits.
Oxford cloth
A basket-weave cotton fabric — two yarns woven together as one — producing a soft, slightly textured surface common in casual button-downs.
Oz (fabric weight)
Ounces per square yard — the imperial unit for fabric weight, used most often for denim, canvas, and other heavy fabrics.
Pima cotton
An extra-long staple cotton variety grown in the American Southwest, Peru, and Egypt. The generic version of the trademarked Supima.
Raw denim
Denim that has not been pre-washed or pre-faded. Starts stiff, dark, and uniform; develops fade patterns specific to the wearer over months of break-in.
Sanforized
A pre-shrinking treatment for cotton fabric. Sanforized denim shrinks ~1% on first wash; unsanforized shrinks 5–10%.
Selvedge denim
Denim woven on traditional shuttle looms, producing a clean self-finished edge that doesn't fray. Slower to make, more expensive, often higher quality.
Supima cotton
A trademarked branding for American-grown extra-long staple cotton (ELS). Stronger, softer, and more durable than standard upland cotton.
// Construction
6 termsFull canvas (tailoring)
A jacket construction where the canvas interlining is stitched (not glued) to the wool throughout the front. Drapes naturally, breaks in to your body, lasts decades.
Goodyear welt
A shoe construction method where the upper, lining, and welt strip are stitched together, then a second seam attaches the welt to the sole. Resoleable and extremely durable.
Pilling
Small balls of tangled fibers that form on fabric surfaces from friction. Tells you about fiber quality, knit construction, and how the garment was made.
Plain weave
The simplest weave structure — each weft yarn passes over and under alternating warp yarns. Used for poplin, broadcloth, canvas, and many shirting fabrics.
Single-needle stitching
A shirting construction where seams are sewn with one needle making one row of stitches at a time. Slower, more precise, more durable than double-needle.
Twill weave
A weave structure that creates diagonal lines across the fabric. Used for denim, chinos, gabardine, and most workwear pants.
// Style
3 termsChambray
A plain-weave cotton fabric with a colored warp + white weft, producing a denim-adjacent appearance. Lighter, softer, and much less durable than denim.
Chore coat
A boxy, four-pocket workwear jacket originally worn by French farmers and railway workers. The most versatile light outerwear in modern menswear.
OCBD (Oxford Cloth Button-Down)
A button-down collar shirt in oxford cloth — the foundational casual button-down. Ivy League origin, now universal.
// Fit
3 termsBreak (pants)
How the pant hem sits over the shoe — full break, slight break, no break. Determines the formality of a tailored look.
Drop (suit / jacket)
The numerical difference between chest and waist measurements in suiting. A 6-drop is a 40-chest with a 34-waist; a 7-drop is more athletic.
Rise (pants)
The distance from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband. Determines where the pants sit on your body — high, mid, or low.
// Origin
1 term// Missing a term? hello@loopwheel.co — we’ll add the ones readers actually look up.