Why is white fabric usually transparent compared to fabric dyed with colours?
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Since Nobody else is answering I can try but hopefully someone can give you a better explanation.
First lets look at how colours work. White is White because the material doesn’t absorb visible light and all colours are reflected back. Black is black because it absorbs all visible light and nothing reflects back. Other colours are something in between these two so they absorb some wavelengths and reflect some.
So dyed fabrics absorb more light going through the fabric and thats why they look less transparent since less light goes through them into your eyes.
I assume you’re talking about how you can colors under white, but not white under colors (ie, a bright blue bra under a white shirt).
Pigmentation is an example of subtractive color. We see pigments as white when they subtract no colors. We see pigments as blue when they subtract orange. In the case of fabrics, some light is reflected but a significant amount passes through.
Imagine my white shirt on top. It doesn’t absorb any colors, so all the colors pass through. The blue underneath absorbs the orange and reflects back the rest of the light in the same space as the white (since they are on top of one another) and as a result my eye sees a light blue.
If the blue is on top, the light passing through to the white is already missing orange, so the white can’t reflect any orange back, and the color stays mostly blue.
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