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Silk History
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History of silk, history
on silk, history of Chinese silk, silk textiles, history of
silk fabric, silk material, history of silk making, silk
dresses, history of silk screen
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-Silk Antiques
Eighteenth-century Europeans of
means were the ultimate consumers, and they were particularly captivated by
luxurious and exotic goods, including Chinese silks.
Both the French and the
British began trading with China starting in the late seventeenth century
and of all the commodities imported, silk was one of the most desirable and
profitable.
As textiles were the most expensive of all household items, sure
signs of wealth and status were imported silk window curtains for sumptuous
interiors, and silk dresses in the
latest fashion. The ornamental motifs on Chinese silks, lacquer
work,
and porcelain were borrowed by textile designers in Europe providing for local consumption in the style now known as chinoiserie.
The
Philadelphia Museum of Art has drawn on its large and important collection
of textiles and costumes for a small exhibition entitled The Bizarre and the Beautiful:
Silks of the Eighteenth Century. It
examines the development in Europe of what are known as bizarre
silks, which are defined by their juxtaposition of various
patterns and the use of fantastical imagery. The show, which is
on view until the spring of 2007, comprises fifteen examples of
these silks, a few of which were fashioned into dresses worn by
stylish women in Philadelphia.
-By the middle of the eighteenth
century, bizarre silks were
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gradually supplanted by those that were
ornamented with greater fidelity to nature. |
This was particularly the case in England,
where the picturesque landscape movement introduced by such
figures as Capability Brown influenced textile designers in the
use of flowers, plants, and other natural elements on their
fabrics. In France, designers were inclined to exaggerate the
actual appearance of fruits and plants, making them much larger
and coloring them more boldly. This changed by the 1760s when
English designers fell under the sway of French fashions in
which patterns incorporating swags, lace, fur, and small floral
bouquets were popular. Finally, with the advent of the
neoclassical style around the turn of the nineteenth century,
more balanced and symmetrical designs incorporated stripes and
small patterns, which were woven into silk of a much lighter
weight than had previously been popular.
Author Allison Eckardt Ledes
COPYRIGHT Brant Publications, Inc.
& Gale Group
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History of silk,
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