What Is Twill Fabric?

November 1, 2026

Twill is a weave structure where the weft yarn passes over and under warp yarns in a stepped pattern, creating the visible diagonal line you see on denim, chino, and gabardine. It can be cotton, wool, polyester, or any fiber. Twill drapes more, hides soil better, and recovers from wrinkles better than plain weave at the same weight.

People shop for twill like it is a material. It is not. It is a way of weaving, and once you see that, a rack of clothes reorganizes itself: jeans, chinos, a wool gabardine trench, and a work jacket are all cousins, built on the same diagonal.

Run a thumb across a pair of jeans. Those slanted ribs are the weave showing itself. Each row is offset by one yarn from the row before it, and that offset marches across the cloth at an angle, commonly 45 degrees. Simple idea, large consequences for how the fabric behaves.

What the diagonal does to the cloth

Because twill yarns pack more densely and float over multiple threads, twill fabrics tend to be durable for their weight, more opaque, and better at hiding dirt between washes. That is not marketing. A stain spreads along the diagonal floats and reads less sharply than it does on a flat plain weave, which is one reason work clothes settled on twill a long time ago.

The same floats give twill its drape and its slight sheen on the face. They also make it a little more prone to snagging than a tight plain weave, and the diagonal can skew after washing if the garment was cut off grain. Twisted pant legs are usually a twill and cutting problem, not a laundry curse.

Right hand, left hand, and broken twill

Most denim is right hand twill: the diagonal rises to the right when the face is up. Left hand twill rises to the left and tends to feel a touch softer, because of how the yarn twist interacts with the weave direction. Broken twill reverses the diagonal at intervals, removing the consistent direction, which reduces leg twist and gives a flatter look. Herringbone is a familiar broken pattern built on twill.

You do not need to memorize this to buy a shirt. You need it when two garments in the same fiber feel inexplicably different. Weave direction and structure are often the reason, ahead of any finish the label is bragging about.

Reading a label that just says twill

Ask the next questions: what fiber, what weight, and what garment. A cotton twill chino and a wool twill suiting are the same weave family and nothing else alike. Weight decides whether the diagonal will hold a crease, drape in folds, or stand away from the body, and fiber decides care, heat tolerance, and how the color ages.

In the hand, good twill feels dense and smooth with a clear, even diagonal and no loose floats pulling at a fingernail. Uneven diagonals, thin spots along the rib, or a face that snags on dry skin are tells that the cloth was woven loosely to hit a price, and no finish will fix that later.

Frequently asked questions

Is twill a fabric or a weave?

Twill is a weave structure, one of the three basic weaves alongside plain and satin. Fabrics named twill, denim, chino, gabardine, and drill are all woven in a twill pattern, in many different fibers.

Is twill good for summer?

It depends on weight and fiber. A light cotton twill breathes reasonably and hides sweat marks well, but dense twills like denim are warm. The weave alone does not set the season, the weight does.

Does twill wrinkle easily?

Twill generally recovers from wrinkling better than plain weave of the same fiber, because the float structure lets yarns shift and settle. It still wrinkles, especially in linen and light cotton, it just releases creases more readily with hanging.

Why do my twill pants twist around my leg?

Leg twist comes from the diagonal weave direction combined with yarn twist and off grain cutting. Broken twill fabrics were developed partly to reduce it. Washing and wearing will not fully correct a badly cut pair.