I keep coming across the term brise-bise in my curtain
research so decided to find out more. Brise-bise or Brisby net curtains are
short curtains that hang across the lower part of the window. The name comes
from the French for ‘wind breaker’. They tend to have a channel along the
selvedge for a rod or wire to be passed through, which is attached to either
side of the window and often a scalloped lower edge. They were popular in the
early twentieth century, hung across the lower part of a sash window. Café
curtains are similar, short curtains, which became popular in the 1950s. They
could be hung singly but were sometimes hung in tiers with one curtain across
the upper part of the window and another over the lower part. Like brise-bise
curtains they were often made with a channel for a hanging rod or sometimes had
tab tops or loops through which the rod was inserted.
Wednesday 29 March 2017
Wednesday 22 March 2017
Nottingham curtain lace
I’ve just spent a couple of days in Nottingham researching curtain
lace, in particular the lace company J B Walker. The company was founded in the
1840s by Benjamin Walker who was one of the pioneers of lace curtain making. Like
many lace companies it has had a complicated history since then, with different
parts of the family specialising in different aspects of the business as well
as various sales, mergers and acquisitions. The company history is fascinating
but I was also interested to see some of the products of the ‘drapery and
napery’ side of the company, basically curtains, tablecloths and bedspreads.
The image above is a tablecloth made from a cotton and terylene mix, which
gives a slightly more solid feel compared with a tablecloth made of cotton, but
is softer than one made of terylene thread alone. It was also interesting to see
drafts of lace patterns squared off and painted for the lace curtain machines
as well as some day books used by John Walker describing meetings, thread
prices and visits to factories, giving a good picture of the day to day running
of the company.
Friday 17 March 2017
More lace in the Fashion Museum, Bath
I saw the exhibition A history of fashion in 100 objects at
the Fashion Museum in Bath and was most interested to see what lace it
included. The first showcase includes some beautiful embroidered and lace
embellished gloves so I was not disappointed. There were small lace edgings in
some of the dress on show but it wasn’t until the section on Regency fashion
that lace became prominent. A frock from 1817 of madras lace (shown in the
image on the left) was very delicate. According to the caption, the development
of machine made net in 1809 meant that all over lace dresses were very popular
at this time. A stunning example of a dress incorporating lace was an 1860s
dress of pale green silk with applied black machine lace combined with a Bucks
point handmade bobbin lace collar.
A red and white 1870 dress with bustle and low décolletage
also included some pretty blonde style lace around the neckline. There was not
much lace on show in the later, more modern, sections of the exhibition –
probably because the interesting lace dresses were on show in the concurrent Lace
in fashion exhibition. I did think the 2011 House of McQueen silk tulle
embroidered gown by Sarah Burton was quite lace-like though.
Tuesday 14 March 2017
Fashion doll
I was intrigued to see this fashion doll and her wardrobe at
the Fashion Museum in Bath because it reminded me of the teenage doll I had as
a child. This one is called Miss Virginia Lachasse and she was modelled on
Virginia Woodford, the house model for Lachasse of Mayfair. She was made in
1954 to raise money for the Greater London Fund for the Blind. Her clothes were
made to scale in the Lachasse workrooms, her stockings were made by Aristoc and
her cosmetics by Yardley. She even has tiny gloves and a handbag.
Friday 10 March 2017
Parchment lace
I saw this lovely dress at the Fashion Museum in Bath. It is
a court dress from the 1600s and is the oldest dress in their collection. The
fabric shimmers because although the warp is silk, the weft is silver metal
thread which catches the light. It is decorated with parchment lace (see the
close up on the left of the image). It gets its name because the larger
elements of the pattern are formed from flat strips of parchment wrapped in
silk thread. They are incorporated into the silk bobbin lace as it is worked.
(The image combines two photographs from the book Treasures published by the
Museum)
Tuesday 7 March 2017
Lace in fashion at the Fashion Museum, Bath
I enjoyed the Lace in fashion exhibition which ranged from
the exquisitely handmade lace of the 1600s to the laser printed lace of today
and covered quite a lot in between. I thought the lace in the handmade section
was breathtaking. It included a Brussels Duchesse wedding veil from the 1860s
that included bobbin and needle lace applied to a machine made net and a point
de gaze needle lace shawl from the same period. The cape in the same case is
also from the 1860s and is decorated with black Le Puy bobbin lace which was
fashionable at the time. The cabinet also included a 1980 black dress made by
Madame Osborn, the court dressmaker, which included quite large inserts of
Venetian gros point from the 1600s, showing that lace was often reused. This
was emphasised when I discovered a flounced dress by Catherine Buckley made in
the 1970s from painted Nottingham curtain machine lace – I have seen examples
of this painted curtain lace in Nottingham so recognised the material at once!
Going round the exhibition it struck me how soon machine
lace took over from handmade laces. The evening dress in the image above dates
from 1829 and is made of machine-woven gauze resembling blonde lace. A tatted
wedding dress from the 1930s was an exception, but it had been made by Anne
Goodwin for her grand daughter and was not available commercially. It was also
interesting to see how quickly the handmade laces were copied by machine. There
were examples of chemical lace mimicking Irish crochet and tape laces
resembling bobbin lace. As well as a fabric giving the appearance of
Carickmacross lace and a cream silk evening dress by Amalia Machado from 1959 for
which pieces of machine lace were sewn on to the completed garment to resemble
Chantilly lace.
I like the way the exhibition ranged from demure wedding
veils to sexy red and black dresses from recent catwalks. One of my favourites
was a 1991 see-through, black, imitation Chantilly lace dress by Karl Lagerfeld
which Linda Evangelista wore for a photoshoot for Vogue. I thought it was aposite
to end the exhibition with examples of laser cut and laser printed lace as the
story of lace has always been about adapting new technology to bring lace up to
date. My only complaint was that there was no publication to accompany the
exhibition.
Thursday 2 March 2017
Filet lace
Having seen so many lovely machine lace curtain designs
recently, based on a grid format, I’ve been having a look at filet lace. I made
some for the City and Guilds qualification, which involved making the filet net
lace background as well – the type of thing that is easy once you’ve started
and got the pattern going but you feel all fingers and thumbs when you’re
trying to get it started. The ‘darning’ as well is not as simple as it seems
and requires careful planning beforehand so you manage to cover all the squares
evenly and the threads end up in the right place. It’s not really the way I
like to make lace, I like the aspect of serendipity, rather than having to
organise where each thread is going before I start. There is some beautiful
filet lace around though. I remember seeing some lovely examples in the museums
in Brugges. It is also the inspiration for much curtain lace so I need to carry
on my exploration.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)