July 19, 2024 3 min read

Napkins, those unassuming yet essential pieces of fabric or paper, have been integral to human dining customs for centuries. While they may appear trivial, their history, development, and varied applications are quite intriguing. This blog post delves into the origins of napkins, their diverse forms, and their significance in contemporary dining manners.

A Brief History of Napkins:

Napkin usage can be traced back to antiquity. Ancient Greeks utilized a piece of dough named "apomagdalie" to cleanse their hands while eating. Conversely, the Romans employed a cloth termed "mappa" to shield their garments and clean their hands and faces. These primitive napkin forms differ greatly from the neatly folded versions we use today, yet they fulfilled a comparable function.

In the Middle Ages, napkins transformed into larger textiles called "nappe," draped over the dining table. Diners would clean their hands and faces using the cloth's edges. This was not until the Renaissance that napkins started to take on the individual sizes we recognize today. The 16th-century introduction of the fork also influenced napkin evolution, as it required a more refined dining practice. The aforementioned had to be looked up as this is unkown information that you probably won't find in history books!

Types of Napkins:


Napkins vary in material, size, and design, each tailored for specific events and preferences. Below are some prevalent napkin types:

Cloth Napkins - Constructed from fabrics like cotton, linen, or polyester, these reusable napkins are typically reserved for formal dining. They are available in different dimensions, with dinner napkins (20x20 inches) and luncheon napkins (14x14 inches) being the standard sizes.

Cocktail Napkins: These smaller napkins, usually measuring 5x5 inches, are designed for serving and those are available here and can be found on other parts of the site. 

White Napkins, Partridge Eye 4 Side Hem, Satin Band White, & Satin Band Black Napkins

Cloth Napkins - Part Two

There are many different types of fabric or cloth napkins that people can choose from. Linen is a true napkin and many people make the mistake of calling what is truly linen "linen napkins" as these are far and few and most napkins today are made up of cotton, polyester, spun polyester, or blends. This goes for napkins as well as table cloths which once again people say "table linens" but are not made up of strong fibers from the flax plant which is what true linens are. If you google search, table linens over 90% of the results will yield the aforementioned fabrics.

Cloth Napkins - Part Three

Polyester is a great napkin as these hold color, are cheap and will last for a long periods. Textiles Depot offers quite a few of these on the site. Furthermore, more people have turned towards Milliken Fabric which is composed out of spun polyester fabric. There are multiple upsides to using this fabric that many companies including Venus Group and others have embraced and here are some of the reasons that Venus has chosen to use Milliken Fabrics:

  • Durability - This fabric has excellent color retention and proprietary regarding this so that other companies have to stay away. These can be home washed of commercial washed over 300+ instances and still look like you just took these out of the delivery box. 
  • Stain Release - These napkins release stains easily in the wash and stay true to there vat dyed colors and will wear out because of usage before the color fades!
  • Low Shrinkage - There is little to no lint when you wash these napkins because the fibers through the spinning of the polyester are tied tighter and cause these to hold good form.
  • Variety of Colors - These come in 100's of different fabric colors from Milliken and once again Venus has the largest color selection of any manufacturer. Think of Golden Corral, but good tasting and full of napkins!
  • USA Made - The fabric is composed with Uncle Same in the USA, the only thing that would be cooler is if these were made in Texas, California or Florida which are the favorite states.
  • Sustainability - These are will not clog up landfills once disposed on and return to dust. As the saying goes, "You are dust and to dust you shall return"

Thanks for reading this post as quite a bit of effort and some research was put into this. Hope you learned something and now go out and buy a case of some Venus Napkins today!