~Perfect Fabric for Luxury Lingerie?~
Oh, yes!
Don’t we all just love the intricate beauty of lace for our luxury lingerie?
How did lace come about anyway?
Was it always meant to be used for lingerie purposes?
Well, it didn’t start out to be the fabric of choice to use in our underwear way back when…
Let’s dive into the topic of the history of lace and find a glorious newly found appreciation for lace luxury lingerie together.
~What is Lace?~
First of all, the word lace apparently stems from the Latin word ‘laceum’, which means as much as ‘noose’.
We can visualize that a noose is something like an open space surrounded by thread or rope.
And now we can see that these open spaces surrounded by thread, those little nooses, can be shaped and repeated to hearts’ content.
By doing so, by ‘lacing’ the patterned loops, nooses, or open spaces together we can now see that it creates a designed open woven, weblike patterned fabric we can now describe as being lace.
~When and Where did Lace-Craft Start?~
It is actually hard to determine where and when any lace technique started and where.
We see a depiction of lace in for example a Flemish (Belgium) painting from 1485.
This painting depicts a praying clergyman, wearing a tunic with lace detailing around the collar and arms.
So, did it start in Belgium?
Or did it start in Italy around 1493?
Because in Italy, there was a claim on lace, related to a will by the Sforza family.
Maybe many countries developed an individual lace-type fabric at various times?
But the hard thing about determining a solid year from which lace hails is because the fabric is so delicate that not a lot survived long enough to research the origins thoroughly.
~Churchie History of Lace~
According to history, throughout the 16th century, we find that lace was used by the Catholic church in the vestments of clergymen.
Lace would be adorning their ceremonial robes, and the lace used (mainly cut-work lace) was often created from silver, gold, and silk thread.
Of course, this churchie trend, with its intricate lace, would look quite opulent and many rich people would know exactly how to integrate lace into their parlor furnishings, and clothing too.
So, well-to-do people would use expensive lace for trimming their clothes, but it would also be used for the likes of cushion covers.
~History of lace Summary~
Considering all the above, we can now conclude that we didn’t use lace for our luxury lingerie and undergarments back in the 14th to 16th century yet.
It was used in the ‘men of the cloth’ – world and it was adopted by the rich to use in furnishings and clothing.
As from then, the usage of lace, the materials used, and the different kinds of lace-making techniques would develop throughout time.
We do know that lace gained more and more popularity around the globe from these centuries onwards.
And of course, we will touch on all these lacy subjects in future blogs for your pleasure, mes chéries!
~*~
Images:
Follow us on :
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter
And also, feel free to check other historical gems on the blog:
