Fabric types: a buyer's glossary

Fabric is the foundation of every garment, and a buyer who cannot read fabric is buying blind. When a Chinese supplier says "cotton" or "this is a nice fabric", that tells you almost nothing about how it will feel, wash, breathe or sell in Lagos. This glossary covers the fabrics you will meet most often, what each one does well and badly, and which ones suit Nigerian heat and the Nigerian customer. Treat it as a vocabulary you build on every time you handle a swatch.

The natural fibres

• Cotton. Soft, breathable and comfortable against the skin, which makes it the default for everyday wear in a hot climate. It wrinkles, can shrink, and lower-quality cotton pills. The most customer-friendly fibre for Nigerian weather.
• Linen. Very breathable and cool, with a relaxed look, but it creases heavily. Often blended with cotton for a softer, more practical fabric.

The synthetics

• Polyester. Durable, cheap, resists shrinking and holds colour and shape well. The catch is breathability: pure polyester traps heat and can feel uncomfortable in Nigerian weather, so it is better blended than worn alone next to the skin.
• Nylon. Strong and smooth, common in linings, activewear and bags.
• Spandex (elastane or Lycra). The stretch fibre. Just a small percentage, often two to eight per cent, blended in gives a garment its stretch and recovery. You rarely buy it alone; you look for it in a blend.

The semi-synthetics

• Rayon (viscose). Made from processed wood pulp, soft with a lovely drape that mimics natural fibre, popular for blouses and flowing dresses. It is breathable, which helps in heat, but it wrinkles and can be weaker when wet.
• Modal and bamboo. Soft, breathable rayon-family fibres often used in comfortable, draping garments.

Blends, and why they exist

Most real-world fabric is a blend, because blending borrows the best of each fibre:

• Cotton-polyester. Comfort and breathability from cotton, durability and easy care from polyester. A practical everyday mix.
• Cotton-spandex. Cotton comfort with a little stretch for fitted tops and jeggings.
• Poly-rayon-spandex. A common dressy blend with drape, a little stretch and easy care.

Always confirm the actual composition rather than accepting a loose label. A fabric sold as "cotton" is often a blend, and the difference shows up in how it feels and washes.

Weight, or GSM

GSM (grams per square metre) tells you how heavy and dense a fabric is, and it matters as much as the fibre:

• Low GSM (light). Thin, breathable, can be see-through. Good for summer dresses and linings; risky if it shows underwear.
• Mid GSM. The everyday range for most shirts and dresses.
• High GSM (heavy). Thick, opaque, structured. Good for outerwear and quality tees; can feel hot.

For Nigerian heat, lean toward breathable natural fibres and sensible weights. A heavy polyester may photograph richly and then sit unworn in a sweaty climate.

Ask three questions of every fabric: what is it made of, what does it weigh, and how does it wash. The answers predict the customer's experience better than the price does.

A swatch checklist

Before you commit to a fabric:

1. Order a swatch and handle it; never buy fabric on a photo.
2. Confirm the exact composition in writing.
3. Note the GSM and judge it against the garment's purpose.
4. Wash a sample and check for shrinking, fading and pilling.
5. Ask how it behaves in heat, not just how it looks new.

This is the groundwork for any production run, and it ties directly to fabric sourcing and minimum order quantities once you move into private label.

Settling the payment

Fabric suppliers and the factories that sew it are paid in RMB on Alipay, with production work staged across deposit and balance. A trade-facilitation service settles each from Naira at a locked rate, with a receipt, so your fabric and production payments are each cleanly recorded.

So learn the fibres, insist on swatches and real composition, judge weight against purpose, and wash-test before you scale. When a payment is due you can make a request to pay on Alipay from Naira. Read fabric well and you choose stock that sells and survives the wash.