Nankeen takes its name from Nanjing (historically romanized as Nanking), the ancient Chinese city whose name means Southern Capital (南 nán = south, 京 jīng = capital). The fabric — a sturdy cotton cloth with a distinctive natural yellowish-buff color — was manufactured in the Nanjing region and exported to Europe in enormous quantities during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The remarkable feature of nankeen was its color. Unlike most cotton textiles, which are white and must be dyed, nankeen derived its characteristic buff or yellowish tint from the cotton plant itself. The cotton variety grown in the Nanjing region (Gossypium arboreum) produced naturally pigmented fibers, creating a fabric with a warm, earthy tone that required no dyeing. When European manufacturers attempted to produce imitation nankeen from their own white cotton, they had to dye it — a process that never quite matched the depth and subtlety of the natural color.
Nankeen became enormously fashionable in the 18th century, particularly for men's trousers. The fabric was durable, washable, comfortable in warm weather, and its distinctive color set it apart from the whites and darks that dominated men's wardrobes. Nankeen trousers were standard summer wear for gentlemen on both sides of the Atlantic, and 'nankeens' became a metonym for trousers generally.
The trade in nankeen was part of the broader exchange that brought Chinese goods to Europe — alongside silk, porcelain, and tea. The fabric was shipped through Canton (Guangzhou), the only Chinese port open to European trade for most of the 18th century, and distributed through the trading networks of the British East India Company, the Dutch VOC, and their competitors.
By the mid-19th century, the industrial revolution's mechanized cotton mills in Lancashire and New England had largely displaced hand-woven Chinese nankeen in Western markets. Machine-made imitations, dyed to approximate the natural color, were cheaper if inferior. The original Chinese nankeen became a luxury item and eventually a rarity.
The word nankeen survives primarily in historical and literary contexts, appearing in period novels and costume descriptions. Nankeen also gives its name to a pale yellowish-brown color, preserving in the color vocabulary the memory of a fabric that once dressed the gentlemen of three continents.