Soft material in the view of duke lacking measure of weight (9)

'soft material' is the definition.
(cloth material)

'the view of duke lacking measure of weight' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found in the answer.
'measure' could be 'li' (li is a kind of measure) and 'li' is found in the answer.
'weight' could be 'w' (short for weight) and 'w' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?