I have a Bowens BW4036 Silver / White 36" Umbrella, two infact. Not that I am an expert but can comment only on my kit. The Umbrella has a removable outer skin which is silver reflective and a white fixed inner. Most shots I do these days use the silver outer on. If the silver outer is removed it allows shoot through where flash is the opposite side of umbrella to literally shoot through resulting is a nice diffused light. The former mode using silver outer on still gives a diffused light but is less costly for light loss. Most of traditional (as I call) mode ends up on your subject whereas shoot through some light is reflected back and thus lost.
I'll dig out an illustration in the flash board so you can see what I mean.
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