In The World Of Fabric, What Is Brocade?

I've posted about many different types of fabrics in the past from exotic creations like ikat, here, or African kuba/kente/mudcloth here.

Those are visually easy to identify because they are so unique, but some fabrics get confused with one another and terms sometimes end up being interchangeable even when the fabrics are distinct. Jacquard, previously here, is an umbrella term for many types of fabrics. The name refers to Joseph Marie Jacquard, the inventor of an 1801 attachment for looms using punch cards that individually control each of the warp yarns (the up/down, or north/south yarns) in a piece of cloth.

Below you can see a Jacquard attachment on a loom.

Here is a close-up of the punch cards, made of thin planks of wood. If there was a hole, a hook would raise. If not, the hook wold go down. In this way, a pattern would emerge in the fabric.

Differing fabrics and effects can be achieved by varying the color, material, and number of warp as well as weft threads. One of the fabrics a Jacquard loom can create is damask which features some kind of figure, usually symmetrical, like an Arabesque or a floral. The warp fibers are shiny while the weft fibers (those that left/right or east/west as it were) are matte. This gives damask a quality that makes it ideal for tone-on-tone color palettes. Another characteristic of damask fabric is that is is reversible...there is no "rough" woven side. For this reason, the use of damask is very common for tableware like napkins and tablecloths.

But something even more complex can be created when adding extra weft fibers only in a certain area to make a raised or embossed design. This type of jacquard fabrics is called brocade. Originally crafted from silk, brocade has origins in ancient India around 1750 B.C.E. It made its way through China around 450 B.C.E., and through the European Renaissance of the 15th century. But the invention of the Jacquard loom allowed brocade to be made faster, and the fabric was once again the rage throughout the 1800s.

What makes brocade so special is that the extra weft threads are often of metallic gold or silver, making the raised design shimmer. This opulent fabric can be used for very special but limited applications for upholstery, pillows, even wall covering. Using a brocade speaks to its history and adds a sense of luxury and value.

Chinese Brocade from Lee Jofa/Kravet in Sand and Red

Chinese Brocade from Lee Jofa/Kravet in Sand installed on library chairs

Happy designing!

A Flokati Will Keep You Warm

For the colder months here in the Northern Hemisphere, nothing keeps you warmer than all natural wool. And what could be more luxurious than feeling warm, thick wool pile under your feet instead of a cold wood or tile floor?

A flokati (flow-KAH-tee) is a type of rug that has been woven in Greece for thousands of years. Originally created by Vlach shepherds in the Pindus mountain range on the border of Greece and Albania, these rugs are made entirely of sheep wool, including the base. When the rug is being woven, long wool strands are inserted in between the weft fibers (the ones that run horizontally, or left to right). The rugs are then left in cold running water like rivers or waterfalls (or machine baths) where the long wool strands unravel and fluff out, while the backing gets much tighter, creating the classic, shag-rug look and feel of a flokati.

Today, these rugs are still handmade in Greece. In fact, in 1966 the Greek Ministries of Finance, Industry, and Commerce passed a law regarding flokatis that is reminiscent of the territorial claims for champagne (in order to be called champagne and not just a sparkling wine, it must be made in the Champagne region of France). The law specified that for a rug to be classified as a flokati, it must be hand woven in Greece and must be made of 100% wool (warp, weft, and pile). The total weight of the rug must be at least 1800 grams of wool per square meter. And the flokati must be subjected to the water friction process for the pile to unravel and fluff out.

Since they were popular in the United States in the 1970s, these rugs can have a slightly retro vibe to them. But as you can see below, they can look completely modern too!

Flokatis don't have to go on the floor either--they can be spread on chairs or on the backs of sofas...or even hung on walls like a tapestry to give a space texture.

Happy designing!

Fabric: What Is Damask?

There are so many terms when working within the world of fabric and often clients may have heard of a term without truly knowing what it means. If you've ever wondered what a "damask" refers to, read on...

Created using one of the original five weaving techniques, damask comes to us from the fifth and sixth centuries in the Middle East. In fact, the fabric name "damask" comes from the city of Damascus, which was on the Silk Road. Thus the fabric was disseminated around the world, eventually, and naturally, ending up in Europe. After the ninth century, damasks became scarce, but history sees them pop up again in fourteenth century France where the fabric name as we know it today was first used.

Damasks are a type of Jacquard (previously here) and feature some kind of figure, usually symmetrical, like an Arabesque or a floral. The warp fibers are shiny (these are the fibers that run up and down) while the weft fibers (those that run left to right) are matte. This gives damask a quality that makes it ideal for tone-on-tone color palettes. Another characteristic of damask fabric is that is is reversible...there is no "rough" woven side. For this reason, the use of damask is very common for tableware like napkins and tablecloths.

Here is a bolt of a tone-on-tone damask fabric.

This photo illustrates a tone-on-tone damask with its sides folded back to reveal the contrasting--and reversible--underside. You can see how the light pattern becomes dark and the dark background becomes light.

Since damask is a fairly sturdy fabric, it lends itself nicely to upholstery. Because of its history and look, it fits beautifully in a traditional scheme, or on a period piece of furniture like the Louis XV bergère and foot stool, and then the fauteuil seen below.

And here we have the most common usage for damasks: napkins and tablecloths.

So you can see that damasks are elegant, stylish, and refined. And to evoke a romantic European sense, set a table with damask cloth and napkins for your next dinner party!
Happy designing!

What Is Jacquard?

Let's look this week at jacquard fabric. You may have heard this term used for a kind of fabric but wondered exactly what it is.

Before we dive in to a description of this kind of material, let's go over a few basics of fabric. Nearly every type of fabric is woven from individual fibers on a loom. The fibers or threads that are attached to the loom which run vertically (away from the weaver) are called warp threads, and the ones that run horizontally (left to right of the weaver) are called weft fibers. Differing fabrics and effects can be achieved by varying the color, material, and number of warp and weft threads.

Jacquard is a type of fabric manufactured by using the Jacquard attachment on the loom which permits individual control of each of the warp yarns. This attachment which used punch cards was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801. Thus, fabrics of almost any type or complexity can be made, and jacquard fabrics can be very complex indeed. The punch card was later modified into an early form of a calculator, the forerunner of our modern computers.

Brocade and damask are types of jacquard woven fabrics. And there are other fabrics that can be woven on a loom with a jacquard attachment such as jerseys.

Below you can see a Jacquard attachment on a loom.

Here is a close-up of the punch cards, made of thin planks of wood. If there was a hole, a hook would raise. If not, the hook wold go down. In this way, a pattern would emerge in the fabric.

Joseph Marie Jacquard (July 7, 1752 – August 7, 1834), the inventor of the punch card attachment, was the son of Jean Charles Jacquard, a master weaver in Lyon, France.

Now, machines are computerized but still use a version of a Jacquard head attachment.
Below is a Jacquard loom at Sunbury Textile Mills in Pennsylvania.

And here we see a Jacquard loom at use in the Horred, Sweden factory of Ekelund, master weavers since 1692.

Take a look at some of the stunning jacquards that can be created using the Jacquard attachment. Up until the Jacquard attachment, such intricate patterns had to be hand-stitched of printed onto fabric, both time- and labor-intensive undertakings.

In a future post, we will talk about two other types of jacquard fabric: damask and brocade fabrics! Stay tuned...

Happy designing!