Monthly Newsletter • April 2024
Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles
R
Dear Lacis Museum Friend,
Spring finds us flush with new books. An embarrassment of riches.
We immersed ourselves in a wealth of bobbin lace books from France — instructional books on how to create textile objects of great beauty which are strikingly beautiful objects themselves.
Dentelle Aux Fuxeaux by Sabot and Chanteloube
contains 16 beginner's bobbin lace designs for grounds and edgings exploring color and decorative threads. It's such a gorgeous book. Perfect for reference and inspiration, you bobbin-lace makers.
Dentelle de Valenciennes les Bases by Sophie Houpeurt
covers the history and basics of Valenciennes bobbin lace — which originated in Valenciennes, in the Nord département of France, and blossomed in the 18th century — through a series of doilies and borders.
Dentelle Torchon by Martine Piveteau
is an excellent reference book with traditional torchon bobbin lace patterns for linear and circular designs, complete with working diagrams and pricking layouts. This whole series from publisher Milpoint is so gorgeous.
Dentelle Torchon & Fils Coupés by Claudine Bigot
contains 19 bobbin lace projects ranging from gorgeous leaf designs for folding fans (Éventail jour de fête, "Festive Day Fan", Éventail Giverny, a floral landscape replete with butterflies, after Giverny in northern France, etc.) to a biscornu and pochette.
La Maille de Bailleul by Isabelle Gruson
of Bruges, Belgium and Le Relais de la Dentelle, includes 50 bobbin lace edging patterns with color patterns and pricking designs originating from Bailleau, also in northern France. Ideal for our growing coterie of bobbin lace students...!
Then we have some riveting reads about textile and costume history, and looking critically at how we treat clothing society, for our period-bounding creators.
Historical Pattern Archive: Women's Clothing 1837-1969 by Marcy Linton and Thomas John Bernard
offers an accurate pattern of each garment on a 1/8" graph that can be used to scale the pattern up to its original size, drawings of each piece from multiple angles, and instructions about how the original garment was constructed and what materials were used.
Capturing research and information about garments that would have otherwise stayed hidden or disappeared permanently due to age, wear, or poor storage conditions, this volume is designed to be a tool to preserve history through documenting vintage clothing.
Written for historians, reenactors, costumer makers, and costume designers, Historical Pattern Archive will enable readers to study the history behind each piece, implement their original techniques, and recreate unique garments that are both beautiful and historically accurate.
Stitching la Mode: Patterns and Dressmaking from Fashion Plates of 1785-1795 by Carolyn Dowdell
brings to life women's unique and extravagant fashions of 1785-1795 in a beautifully illustrated and accessible way.
The book consists of scaled patterns directly based on original French, German and English fashion plates drafted according to period-accurate shapes. The patterns encompass the full look presented in each fashion plate from garments to accessories. These are accompanied by a color image of the corresponding fashion plate, straightforward, illustrated directions for recreating the outfits, information on the material used and modelled reproductions of each plate to demonstrate what they would look like in "real life".
The book focuses on unique styles often seen in fashion plates but rarely — if ever — patterned before, making this a fresh and exciting yet historically accurate take on late eighteenth-century fashion.
Threads of Life by Clare Hunter
is "a history of the world through the eye of a needle," a chronicle of identity, protest, memory, power, and politics... From Hmong story clothes to the National Memorial AIDS quilt, her discoursive journey weaves an unforgettable and deeply human tale.
Mend, by Kate Sekules
is truly a powerful manifesto, not just a how-to manual for mending. When the owner of Lacis remarked how wonderful it was that Sekules engages with the subject of mending in a political way, and approaches it as a social and ecological issue, well, we were most gratified to hear it.
Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History
by law professor and social critic Richard Thompson, presents a history of the laws of fashion from the middle ages to the present day, a walk down history's red carpet to uncover and examine the canons, mores, and customs of clothing — rules that we often take for granted.
Dressing à la Turque by Kendra Van Cleave
While French fashion has historically set the bar across the Western world, the cultural influences that inspired it are often obscured. Dressing à Turque examines the theatrical depictions of Ottoman costumes, or Turkish dress, and demonstrates the French fascination for this foreign culture and its clothing. The impact, however, went far beyond costumes worn for art and theater, as Ottoman-inspired fashions became the most prominent and popular themes in French women's fashion throughout the 18th century.
Our very own treasured staff member Angela Grimes appears as a model in Van Cleave's previous book on 18th-century hairwork and wig-dressing!
As you can clearly see, we're elated to be swimming in this bounty of wonderful books.
In spite of having ten thousand other, more urgently-pressing-but-less-fun things to do, such a windfall makes us want to start an informal Lacis Museum Book Club. Visitors are constantly recommending new books (and podcasts, and films and performances!) to us, and vice versa. If you'd be interested, tell us what format/scheduling would be optimal for you. We will take it into consideration!
And according to the natural dictates of the season, we have been fielding an inordinate number of questions about our bridal inventory lately.
To better meet the need, we have begun listing our dresses online, starting with this 1930s 3-piece wonder of a gown. Even if you aren't in the market for such a garment, it should provide some serious fashion inspiration.
We've continued to encounter the most remarkable people, whether randomly passing through our doors by chance, booking our exhibition tours, or taking our classes.
Rose Eldemir is one of those people who truly astonished us recently. We met her last month when she was taking Elise Youssoufian's 2-day Armenian Needlelace workshop, A Dance of Loops and Knots.
MARI ROZA is Rose's fashion label. We explored her catalog and found it a truly incredible aesthetic journey, meticulously developed by Rose Eldemir. We urge you to explore her limited-production line that incorporates vintage linens with natural fabrics (soft and breathable), timeless silhouettes (comfortable and flattering), expert finishing techniques (for the highest quality garment)...
Rose named her label in honor of her grandmother, who was a seamstress par excellence. An honor both precious and mighty, we find; one Roza Mari would be proud of indeed.
Speaking of which: Elise's inaugural two-part Armenian Needlelace workshop went so beautifully.
We look forward to holding it again in June! It'll be perfect for new and continuing students alike. Registration has opened and spaces are limited, so if you're interested, give us a shout!
We continue to explore Lacis Museum's own extensive collection of Armenian Needlelace pieces, slowly but surely. We'll be sharing more pieces with you with each newsletter, and thought we'd ease you into it with something relatively simple. Displayed to the right is a roughly 6.5"-diameter piece made of quite a fine weight of ecru cordonnet thread.
Though to the uninitiated it might look like an old lace doily, it's actually so much more.
As strong as it is delicate, Armenian needlelace is among humanity's oldest and most intricate forms of needlework, evoking mountains and rainbows of home. Its distinctive interlacing patterns, thought to trap or confuse evil spirits and intentions, also appear on ancient Armenian architecture and stone carvings, depicting Earth-honoring elements of culture and place. Are there visual echoes jumping out at you between the needlelace above, and the stonework shown left?
Above right is an Armenian needlelace piece from the LMLT permanent collection (Museum ID: JHC 14729) and shown left is a 13th-century khachkar (a carved "cross-stone") from Haghartsin Monastery, Armenia. Khachkar.am will tell you everything you didn't even know you needed to know about these magnificent works of art.
As we wrap up this month's newsletter, we hope you've enjoyed the updates and insights shared, from our epic book haul, to our new bridal gown gallery and Rose's fashion label.
Wishing you all a wonderful April ahead, and we look forward to reconnecting with you again in May.
And, seriously, if you want to be a part of a book club that focuses on fashion, historical costume, and textile arts and history, let us know.
Next time, we'll delivering even more Armenian needlelace content — as well as a deeper look into this splendid pair of Trés Parisien that was just donated to us this month by Doris Edwards of Oakland. We can't wait to explore these inspired fashion plates further with you...!
Until then, stay inspired and keep creating, dear Lacis friends! We hope to see you soon.
