Abstract: Aqueous dispersions of copolymers consisting of 50-99.9% by weight of a vinyl ester of a saturated monocarboxylic acid having from 1 - 18 carbon atoms, 0.1 - 15% by weight of an .alpha.-haloalkane carboxylic acid vinyl ester of the formula ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 is hydrogen, a halogen atom or an alkyl radical having 1 - 16 carbon atoms, R.sub.2 is hydrogen, a halogen atom or an alkyl radical having 1 - 13 carbon atom and X is a halogen atom, and 0 - 49.9% by weight of at least one other ethylenically unsaturated monomer which can be cross-linked while drying with 0.05% to 10% by weight calculated on the total mixture of an aminoplast resin, a polyamine, a polyamidoamine or a mixture of Formaldehyd and ammonia or an amine. The mixture of the dispersion and the cross-linking agent is stable, and cross-linking will start only when the mixture is applied to a substrate such as a fiber.