CHARMEUSE. In textiles, the proprietary name for a silk dress fabric of light and delicate texture suitable for gowns, party wraps, and such like garments for purely dress purposes, and for which strength and durability are not essential qualities. This fabric has a rich and more lustrous appearance on the face side than on the reverse side, which latter is of a more subdued lustre. This difference in lustre results from the particular weave struc ture of the fabric, and the difference between the character, counts and number of warp and weft threads employed. A typical example of charmeuse consists of a very light texture developed by the 12-end warp-face satin weave, and produced from a grena dine organzine warp, and a two-ply pure schappe silk weft, or else crepe de Chine twist for the warp, and schappe silk for the weft. Charmeuse is also sometimes developed by employing the warp face satin weave in combination with a light voile foundation texture. This is produced by introducing two picks of fine and hard-twisted weft alternately with two picks of schappe silk weft. In this structure the fine picks of weft interweave with the warp threads in the plain weave order, that is, under and over successive warp threads, thereby serving to reinforce the satin weave texture which would otherwise be very weak and flimsy. After weaving, the fabric is piece-dyed and finished with the characteristic soft finish to which it owes its good draping qualities. (H. N.)