Warp printing is a fabric production method which combines textile printing and weaving to create a distinctively patterned fabric, usually in silk. The warp threads of the fabric are printed before weaving to create a softly blurred, vague pastel-coloured pattern. It was particularly fashionable in the eighteenth century for summer wear.
The silk and taffeta fabrics produced by this technique have a variety of names, including chiné, Pompadour taffeta (after Madame de Pompadour) and chiné àla branche. Chiné velvet was also possible, although the technique was very difficult and expensive and it was only made in a few places in France in the eighteenth century.