Net Fabric: Everything You Need to Know
By Anusha Lall
Net is a lightweight, open-weave fabric with a mesh-like structure, prized in ethnic wear for its sheer, radiant appeal. While entire outfits of net are available, it’s most often used as part of an outfit to enhance the overall look — from sarees to suits, dupattas to sleeves. Available in a plethora of colours, it can be matched with any outfit, giving designers ample room to create something unique from the combination of net and another fabric.
Origin
Net in both Indian and Western attire can be traced back centuries. In India, garments with elements of net appear as early as the pre-Mughal era. Women in courts used net in their fabrics and often gave clothes away after wearing them once, since garments weren’t meant to be repeated — and through this tradition, net soon became an addition to the common woman’s wardrobe. Initially made by hand, net was first produced by machine in 1809, when an engine for its manufacture was created. Where net was once made by knotting yarn threads together, the process has evolved and the threads are now mostly interlooped.
How net is made
Net is created with yarn threads woven — looped, fused, tied or knotted — only at their intersections. This loose weave leaves spaces in the fabric that resemble the gaps in a net, which is how the fabric got its name. The same technique is used to make real nets, hammocks and the windows in camping tents. Beyond the traditional methods, net can also be made via a process called knotless netting, where the yarn is coated before weaving to ensure durability; coating the fabric after the weave instead makes it more durable and heat-resistant, depending on the coating used.
Styling net
While net is used in Western fashion too, ethnic fashion has embraced it as a fabric that brings radiance and charm to a whole new level. Ethnic wear uses several varieties of net:
- Tulle: made with silk and nylon yarn in a hexagonal mesh weave, it adds fullness to special-occasion and wedding attire; its use is similar to bobbinet.
- Bobbinet: a hexagonal mesh weave whose thin nature makes it ideal for bridal wear, adding volume and supporting limited embellishments like stones and gems.
- Filet net: made of a square mesh, often forming a pattern of lace.
- Fishnet: named for its large openings, with coarsely tied yarn.
In ethnic fashion, net sarees are supremely famous — they can be draped in different ways, but the pallu always remains the centre of attention, and a net saree can be pulled off at both formal and informal occasions. Net isn’t restricted to sarees, though: it’s used in the saree pallu, in the dupattas of suits made from other fabrics, and in sleeves for kurtas and blouses, where embroidered patches are sewn on for a textured effect. It’s also used as the outer covering of anarkali suits — usually a single layer over the base fabric, but layered further for more volume — and the same trick adds both volume and an ethereal appeal to a lehenga. Like its sibling sheer organza, net highlights any fabric without being difficult to accessorise. Whatever the type, net needs neither an introduction nor a promotion — it’s safe to say it has taken both Western and ethnic fashion by storm.
