Mélange
Fabric — one of 56 in the glossary
A fabric knit from a mix of differently coloured fibres, producing the flecked, non-solid appearance sold as heather. Because the colour is built from the fibre up rather than dyed onto finished cloth, the effect has depth and does not wash out flat. Most heathers mix dyed polyester with undyed or lighter cotton, which is why a heather grey is rarely 100% cotton. For printing, the mottled surface partly shows through any thin ink film, so a design on mélange reads softer and less opaque than the same art on a solid tee.
Colour built from the fibre up
A mélange yarn is spun from a mix of differently coloured fibres, so the colour is inside the yarn rather than applied to finished cloth. The eye blends them at a distance and sees the flecked, non-solid shade sold as heather.
Because the effect is structural it has depth, and it cannot wash out flat the way a surface treatment can.
Different mixes give different characters: a two-colour blend reads as a clean heather, a three-colour one as something closer to a tweed.
Why heather grey is rarely 100% cotton
The usual recipe mixes dyed polyester with undyed or lighter cotton, because the two fibres take dye differently and that difference is what produces the fleck.
So a heather grey tee is very often a blend even when the brand's solid colours in the same style are pure cotton. It is worth checking the composition per colour rather than per style.
That matters for decoration as much as for feel: the heather colourway of a style can behave like a blend at the press while its solid siblings behave like cotton.
Printing on mélange
The mottled surface shows through a thin ink film, so a design reads softer and less opaque than the same artwork on a solid tee. Many people choose mélange for exactly that effect.
Where full opacity is wanted, an underbase is the answer, which adds cost and hand.
And if the mélange is a polyester blend, the usual dye-migration caution applies — low-bleed ink and a lower cure.
Common questions
- What is mélange fabric?
- Fabric knitted from yarn spun with differently coloured fibres mixed together, producing the flecked, non-solid look sold as heather. The colour is in the fibre rather than on the cloth.
- Is mélange the same as heather?
- In practice yes — mélange is the technical term for the yarn, heather the marketing term for the look it produces.
- Why is heather grey not 100% cotton?
- Because the fleck usually comes from mixing dyed polyester with lighter or undyed cotton. The two fibres take dye differently, and that difference is the effect.
- Does printing look different on heather?
- Yes. The mottled surface shows through thin ink, so prints read softer and less opaque. An underbase restores opacity at the cost of a heavier hand.
See also
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