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Lace-Making
Lace-Making
Lace Making
The constant drive to make clothing more attractive is responsible for the creation of the finest and most costly trimming we now call classic lace. Those first steps were taken in the land of the Pharaohs, who used flax cloth decorated with colored threads and worked them in geometric designs. The ancient Greeks and Romans would ornament their togas with colors or gold. A new garment needed no ornament about the immediate edge, but as it became worn and frayed, the threads had to be twisted and stitched together. Lace is derived from the twisting techniques used in decoration of the fringe ends of woven fabric. In Flanders, lace is called "kant" meaning border or edge. The birthplaces of lace-making are generally recognized as Flanders and Italy.
From the twelfth century onward, Flanders consisted of a group of city-states in which most aspects of daily life were safely structured. The cities were organized by groups of artisans who shared the same occupation. These powerful organizations were called "Guilds" and their representatives made the rules. Cities like Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and to a lesser extent also Brussels, accumulated a lot of wealth by growing flax, turning it into linen thread and linen fabric: the most precious and finest material for clothing at that time. The more wealthy they became the more the surrounding states wanted to conquer and annex those cities.
So it happened that Joan of Navarre visited Bruges in 1300 and jealously questioned her husband the King of France, Philip IV, nicknamed The Fair (1268-1314), how it was possible that all the women on the streets in Flanders were better dressed than she was. Being a man of action, Philip promptly sent his tax collectors to the cities, but the Flemish burgers chased them away. In anger for his wounded pride, he sent over an army consisting mainly of the nobles of France under the command of Robert of Artois, Joan’s uncle, to teach those Flemish peasants a lesson.
From the twelfth century onward, Flanders consisted of a group of city-states in which most aspects of daily life were safely structured. The cities were organized by groups of artisans who shared the same occupation. These powerful organizations were called "Guilds" and their representatives made the rules. Cities like Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and to a lesser extent also Brussels, accumulated a lot of wealth by growing flax, turning it into linen thread and linen fabric: the most precious and finest material for clothing at that time. The more wealthy they became the more the surrounding states wanted to conquer and annex those cities.
So it happened that Joan of Navarre visited Bruges in 1300 and jealously questioned her husband the King of France, Philip IV, nicknamed The Fair (1268-1314), how it was possible that all the women on the streets in Flanders were better dressed than she was. Being a man of action, Philip promptly sent his tax collectors to the cities, but the Flemish burgers chased them away. In anger for his wounded pride, he sent over an army consisting mainly of the nobles of France under the command of Robert of Artois, Joan’s uncle, to teach those Flemish peasants a lesson.
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