14 Jul /16

Gingham

Gingham – Word of the day - EVS Translations
Gingham – Word of the day – EVS Translations

Summertime is in its peak and we are looking to be wearing less or nothing at all. You know, being stranded on a tropical beach requires the lightest attire possible as sand and clothes do not work together. And for the less fortunate of us, summer still means work to full steam. And steaming and toasting in the office, we must be dressed up for the occasion.
A good fashion advise for the summer is to  wear natural fabrics like cotton, silk and linen. And best yet gingham! It is trending and totally in the season.

Actually, gingham is a yarn dyed cotton or linen cloth, woven to form stripes or check pattern. Remember the light blue checked dress that Dorothy wore in The Wizard of Oz  – that is a gingham dress. Usually we associate gingham with white and a bold colour check, but the truth is that gingham means ‘striped.’
There are different theories of the etymology of the word, but the most supported one is that it is a rendering of the Malay word ginggang, where in Indonesia the pattern of the contrasting colours symbolises the battle between good and evil, and that it was adopted into English from the Dutch gingang (striped.)

The word was firstly used in the English language back in 1615, in the Diary of Richard Cocks, cape-merchant in the English factory in Japan, which is one of the most important sources for the study of the East Indian Company’s attempts to establish direct trade with Japan: “Capt. Cock is of opinion that the ginghams, both white and brown..will prove a good commodity in the King of Shashma his country.” Logically, at the time, the cotton-weave fabric was exported to Europe from mainly India and Indonesia.

And a century later, after the financial crisis in the UK, when factories influenced by tartan and plaids, started manufacturing gingham to revive the work, the fabric forges on as an integral part of the summer style landscape – a classic pattern that looks equally well on dresses and shirts, tablecloths, curtains or aprons, whether striped or checked.