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Damasks are woven on Jacquard looms. They are Patterned fabrics with a ground of one weave (usually plain, twill or sateen) and designs in other weaves (particularly satin and twill variants so that the patterned areas have sheen and reflect light. Damasks are always reversible, with the pattern weaves becoming the ground weaves on the reverse (so on a fabric with a plain ground and satin pattern front, the ground would be satin and the pattern plain on the reverse).
There are tone-ontone damasks, with different weaves within the damask creating elaborate floral or geometric patterns, and multicoloured damasks, where the background colours and the pattern colours reverse from front to back.
Brocade: Brocades are fabrics with an elaborate embossed or embroidered surface effect, usually with different ground and pattern weaves. Like Damasks, they are also woven on Jacquard looms. Unlike damask, brocades are not reversible. Continuous brocades have the weft threads left loose and floating on the back.
Some continuous brocades have the back threads cut away, though the short cut ends are still visible. A discontinuous brocade is one where additional yarns are only woven into the patterned areas, resulting in a smoother back. Brocades can be set apart from damasks in a way that the back of brocade will typically have groups of threads that have been trimmed away or left out of the weave and look messier.
Damasks, on the other hand, are different from brocade in that their woven pattern is reversible, with the opposite side presenting itself as a film negative – it has the same pattern, but the colors are opposite as to what they are on the front. So, Damasks are reversible while Brocades are not reversible. This is the biggest difference between the 2 fabrics.
