A fabric characterized by a capacity for stretch and recovery from stretch.
Note: The term is used for materials with greater extension and recovery properties than traditional woven or knitted structures from conventional yarns and implies the use of stretch yarns, elastomeric threads, or finishing treatments. Such fabrics may have different degrees of extensibility and recovery specified for particular uses. Strech fabrics, so defined, are used particularly for body conforming garments (comfort strech); for figure controling purposes (power strech). Where the prime requirement is power of recovery, the term elastomeric is prefered
see also elastic fabric
Textile Resource (http://www.textile.org.uk)