CALICO unfinished

Calico means different thongs to different people.

It was named after Calicut (not Calcutta) which is on the west coast of India and used to be a big trading centre for cotton. Vasco de Gama, a portugese explorer 'discovered' Calicut in 1648, and so began the exploitattion of India which continues to this day.

I think of Calico as a simple unfinshed cloth. Unfinished calico is not washed, softened or treated.  It is straight from the loom, it will have flecks and it will shrink, each batch varies but it can be 10% or more shrinkage. It will whiten with washing.

There are many other (finished) cloths in the natural section which some people might call calico.