Glossary
Uniform fabric terms: L
The vocabulary that turns up on spec sheets, quotations and tender documents, defined in a line or two. Where a term deserves more than that, it links to the guide that covers it properly.
L
- Lab dip
- A small trial dyeing produced on the actual fabric to match a colour reference before any bulk quantity is committed. Once approved it becomes the shade standard. Read the guide on Lab dip
- Landed cost
- The total cost of getting fabric to your own door: the ex-mill price plus freight, insurance, import duty, port and clearance charges and any local handling. It is the only number worth comparing between suppliers in different countries, because duty and freight can outweigh the difference in cloth price. Read the guide on Landed cost
- LCL
- Less than Container Load, where a consignment shares a container with other shippers and is priced by volume. It suits smaller fabric orders, and it carries extra consolidation and deconsolidation handling that a full container does not. Read the guide on LCL
- Lead time
- The time from order confirmation to despatch. For a custom shade it is counted from shade approval rather than from the order date, since dyeing cannot start before approval. Read the guide on Lead time
- Least developed country (LDC)
- A United Nations category of low-income economies that qualifies them for trade preferences such as duty-free access to the EU. When a country graduates out of the category those preferences end after a transition period, which changes what its exports pay at the buyer's border.
- Letter of credit
- A bank undertaking to pay the seller once the stated shipping documents are presented and match the credit exactly. It shifts the payment risk from the buyer's balance sheet to a bank, at the cost of strict documentary discipline: a discrepancy in a document delays payment even when the goods are correct. Read the guide on Letter of credit
- Light fastness
- How well a dyed fabric holds its shade under exposure to light, tested by exposing a specimen alongside a set of references and reporting where the change becomes visible. It is the reason an outdoor uniform can fade while the same cloth indoors does not. Read the guide on Light fastness
- Linen
- On this site the word almost always means institutional bed and ward linen, meaning sheets, pillow covers and similar flat goods, rather than fabric made from flax fibre. Both senses are in ordinary trade use, so it is worth confirming which one a specification means. Read the guide on Linen
- Lining
- A secondary fabric used inside a jacket, blazer or skirt, chosen for smoothness against a garment or shirt rather than for outer durability. It is a separate purchase from the shell cloth and is easy to leave out of a fabric estimate. Read the guide on Lining
- Lint
- Raw ginned cotton fibre, the form traded on cotton exchanges and quoted in cents per pound. It is one step upstream of yarn, and the two do not move together: a fall in lint reaches a yarn price only after the spinner works through bought stock, which is why a cotton posting can be falling while yarn is still firm.
- Liquidated damages
- A contractual deduction for late delivery, charged on the value of the delayed consignment at a stated rate per period up to a ceiling. It applies regardless of where in the supply chain the delay started. Read the guide on Liquidated damages
- Local content
- The share of a supplied item's value that originates domestically, used in Indian public procurement to class a supplier as Class-I or Class-II local. Because fabric is usually the largest material input in a uniform, where the cloth is woven moves the number more than anything else in the bill of material. Read the guide on Local content
- Loom shed
- The weaving floor of a mill, where warp beams are run into cloth on the looms. Asking to see the loom shed running is the simplest way a buyer confirms which stage of the process a supplier actually performs itself rather than buying in. Read the guide on Loom shed
- Lot number
- The code identifying which dye lot a roll came from, marked on the roll and carried on the packing list. It is the link between a roll on the cutting table and the shade record it was approved against. Read the guide on Lot number
- Lustre
- The sheen of a fabric surface, set by how it reflects light. Fibre, yarn type and finishing all affect it: smoother, more regular yarns such as combed or filament yarns reflect more. Read the guide on Lustre
- Lycra
- A brand name for elastane that is used generically in the Indian trade, so a quote reading two percent lycra means two percent elastane. The percentage is small by weight and large in effect, since a few percent is what gives a trouser or a fitted shirt its recovery. Read the guide on Lycra
- Lyocell
- A cellulosic fibre made from dissolving pulp in a closed-loop solvent process, sharing a feedstock with viscose but made differently. It competes for the same pulp, so tight lyocell supply can show up as pressure on the viscose side of a blend.
Looking for something that isn't here? The full guide library goes deeper on every term, and you can always ask us directly.
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