Uniform fabric terms: D

D

D65

A standard daylight illuminant used in colour assessment, approximating average north-sky daylight. Shade approvals are judged under a stated illuminant such as D65 precisely so that two people in two places are looking at a colour under the same conditions. Read the guide on D65

DAP (Delivered at Place)

An Incoterms rule under which the seller carries cost and risk to a named destination and delivers the goods ready for unloading. The buyer pays import duty and handles import clearance, which is the difference from DDP. Read the guide on DAP (Delivered at Place)

DDP

Delivered Duty Paid, the Incoterm where the seller carries every cost and risk to the buyer's named place, including import clearance and duty. It is the term that puts a moving import tariff on the seller's side of the line, which is why it should never be agreed into a market whose rate is unsettled without pricing that risk. Read the guide on DDP

De minimis

A value threshold below which a rule is not applied. In Indian export procedure it appears where a consignment under a stated free on board value is exempted from a requirement that otherwise applies, which is what lets a small supplier courier a sample without holding the registration a commercial shipment would need. Read the guide on De minimis

Declaration of conformity

A statement signed by the manufacturer or supplier that a product meets the requirements of a named regulation or specification. It is the mill's own word rather than a third party's, which is why regulations that require one usually also require independent test reports behind it. Read the guide on Declaration of conformity

Delivery order

The instruction issued by the carrier or its agent authorising the terminal to release a container to the consignee, given once freight and applicable charges are settled and the bill of lading is surrendered or released. A container is not released against a paid supplier invoice; it is released against a delivery order, and the gap between the two is where free time is commonly lost. Read the guide on Delivery order

Delta E

A single number expressing the measured difference between two colours, used alongside visual assessment in shade approval. A smaller value means a closer match. Read the guide on Delta E

Demurrage

A charge for holding a container or cargo past the free days allowed. Internationally it means the full container sitting inside the terminal, while Indian port and container freight station tariffs use the same word for the custodian's cargo storage charge, so read the charge head against what it measures rather than against the word. Read the guide on Demurrage

Denier

A direct count system for filament yarn: the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of it. Higher denier means a thicker yarn, which is the opposite direction to the Ne count used for spun yarns, where a higher number means finer. Read the guide on Denier

Denim

A warp-faced twill woven with a dyed warp and an undyed weft, which is what gives it a coloured face and a pale back. It is a construction rather than a fabric category, so denim says nothing on its own about weight, blend or finish. Read the guide on Denim

Desizing

The wet-processing step that washes out the size applied to warp yarns before weaving, so that dye and finish can reach the fibre evenly. Incomplete desizing shows up later as patchy dyeing or stiff streaks.

Detention

The shipping line's charge for a container held outside the terminal in the consignee's possession past the free days, running until the empty container is returned to the line's nominated depot. It is billed separately from any storage charge raised by the terminal or container freight station. Read the guide on Detention

DGFT

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, the arm of India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry that administers the Foreign Trade Policy. It issues the notifications, public notices and trade notices that set export scheme rules, and it runs the common digital platform through which certificates of origin are applied for and issued, so most of the paperwork behind an Indian fabric export originates in a DGFT instrument. Read the guide on DGFT

Digital product passport

An EU requirement for a machine-readable record of a product's composition, origin and environmental attributes, accessible from the product itself. For an Indian fabric exporter it means the data behind a claim has to exist in a structured form, not only in a test report. Read the guide on Digital product passport

Dimensional stability

How well a fabric holds its length and width after washing. Usually specified as a maximum permitted shrinkage percentage after a stated wash cycle. Read the guide on Dimensional stability

Disperse dye

The dye class used for polyester, applied as a fine dispersion at high temperature because polyester has no sites for water-soluble dyes to bond to. On a poly-viscose blend the polyester is dyed with disperse dyes and the viscose with another class, which is why a blend takes two dyeing stages to reach one shade. Read the guide on Disperse dye

Dissolving pulp

The high-cellulose wood pulp that viscose and lyocell fibre are made from, the alternative feedstock route being refined cotton linter. Its price is one of the two upstream costs that eventually reach a poly-viscose quote.

Dobby

A weave that uses a dobby mechanism on the loom to produce small repeating geometric figures in the cloth itself, rather than printing them on. It gives texture without added colour. Read the guide on Dobby

Double end

A weaving fault where two warp ends run together and weave as one, leaving a slightly thicker line along the length of the cloth. It starts at warping or at the loom and is visible in greige. Read the guide on Double end

Double rub

The unit of the Wyzenbeek abrasion test, one back-and-forth pass of the abradant across the specimen. Double rubs and Martindale cycles are not convertible, so a limit written in one cannot be evaluated against a result in the other. Read the guide on Double rub

Double-width

A loom class that weaves cloth at roughly twice the width of a single-width machine, so one pick of the loom covers more fabric. It sets the widths a mill can offer and it is generally more efficient per metre on the same construction. Read the guide on Double-width

Drape

How a fabric falls and folds under its own weight, from stiff and structured to soft and fluid. It is set by fibre, yarn twist, weave and finish more than by GSM alone, which is why two fabrics of the same weight can hang very differently. Suiting for blazers and trousers wants a controlled drape; shirting wants a softer one. Read the guide on Drape

Drill

A strong warp-faced twill, heavier and more tightly woven than a shirting twill, long used for workwear, security and institutional uniforms. Khaki drill is the form most Indian buyers mean when they say drill. Read the guide on Drill

Dry cleaning

Cleaning in an organic solvent rather than water. It moves oily soil well and barely swells the fibre, but dark and deep shades can bleed dye into the solvent and lose depth, soil redeposited from a poorly kept bath greys whites and pale colours, and a topical water-repellent or soil-release finish usually needs reproofing afterwards. Read the guide on Dry cleaning

DTY

Draw Textured Yarn, polyester filament that has been drawn and texturised so it gains bulk, stretch and a less flat surface than flat filament. It is a direct input to polyester and poly-viscose suiting, so its price feeds through to fabric cost.

Durable press

A finish that sets a fabric's smooth appearance so it recovers from creasing through repeated washing rather than only when new. On shirting it is usually achieved with a resin treatment, which is why its performance and its side effects are discussed together. Read the guide on Durable press

Dwell time

How long a material is held under heat and pressure for a process to complete, most often quoted for fusing an interlining to a collar or cuff. Too short and the bond fails in wash, too long and the face cloth shines or shrinks. Read the guide on Dwell time

Dye lot

One batch of fabric dyed together as a single unit. Fabric from the same lot matches; fabric from two lots of the same shade can differ slightly, which is why lot numbers matter on reorders. Read the guide on Dye lot

Dye recipe

The exact combination of dyestuffs, auxiliaries, temperature and time used to produce an approved shade. It is recorded against the approved lab dip so the same shade can be reproduced on a later lot. Read the guide on Dye recipe

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