Cire is a highly glazed wax finish applied to fabric through a process of heat and pressure, known as calendering (remember calamanco?) which is  giving a wet or polished look.  The name can also refer to the fabric or garment with the resultant finish.  The process tends to produce a stiffer, crisper fabric per weight.  It is sometimes, particularly in interior decorating, called a French wax finish. The term dates to the 1910s, when high fashion garments played with contrasts in fabric and textures, and the shiny, wet look of cire lent an edgy modern twist to combinations of chiffons and brocades and satin. Cire literally means waxed, so the first references to it are to waxed flowers.  This Worth evening coat features “a collar of  ruched velvet, tied with two ribbons held by a roundels of satin and wax flowers”. Cire treated fabrics were popular throughout the 20s, particularly as cire ribbons. Cire reached its zenith in the 30s, when frocks in cire taffeta, cire satin, and even cire lace (ah, a time when …