A yarn with short fibres projecting around its core, or a soft, pile-textured fabric made with it.
Chenille is a tufted yarn with pile projecting around its core, giving it a soft, fuzzy appearance. In the traditional method, a cloth is woven with its warp ends arranged in spaced groups and a thicker weft crossing them. Cutting lengthwise between those groups produces narrow tufted strips that serve as yarn. The name also covers fabric made from or resembling chenille yarn. A useful distinction is where the pile is formed. Chenille carries it in the yarn itself, whereas velvet has a supplementary warp that forms pile during the weaving of the cloth.
In job listings
You will meet chenille in knitwear, home textiles and fabric development rather than in job copy. It helps to know it is a yarn as well as a fabric, since a brief may refer to either. Search local jobs for “fabric”.
