Selvedge special ‘lace’ edition

Selvedge is an artisan magazine which contains articles covering a wide range of subjects all related to makers and hand made creations and is a really lovely read. I was excited to see that Selvedge had published an complete edition of their magazine devoted to Lace!

Some of the things I enjoyed in this edition included :

A Hat Trick - Christine Matthieu Cite Dentelle Mode Museum Exhibition 

This article is made up of photographs of fantastical head pieces made from various types of lace and worn by young dancers from an exhibition of Christine’s photographs featured in the Citie Museum. Initially, I was so focused on the magnificent head pieces I completed missed the transparent faces wearing the head gear. Although the exhibition has finished you can still see some of the photographs from this exhibition on the museum website: http://www.cite-dentelle.fr/en/home/Exhibitions/Current/installation/5a0f12f072e7e5367b80f71d/apparitions---photographs-by-christine-mathieu

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Trouble in Paradise - article by Liz Hoggard

Not a lace article but still interesting article on the Hand and Lock embroider, Juliet Ferry. Juliet joined Hand and lock in 2016 as their Head of Embroidery, her work sounds fascinating with every day bringing different projects. Some of the projects she has been working on include;  Hand monogrammed perfume pouches for a fashion brand,  monogrammed initials for Vivienne Westwood and a wedding dress. Hand and Lock has more than 250 years experience embroidering and monogramming garments for royalty, the military and various fashion houses. Their Instagram is definitely worth a look as is their website. You can see more of Juliet’s work here: http://handembroidery.com/meet-the-team/juliette-terry/

Straight-Laced - article by Kate Cavendish

This article is highlighting how lace has not always been worn exclusively by women and is inspiring modern menswear collections from Burberry, Alexander McQueen and JW Anderson. Some designers are using lace subtly whilst others are embracing and showcasing lace more obviously in their designs, such as Burberrys’ 2016 spring/summer collection which featured a white lace gentleman’s coat and Alexander McQueens’ Spring/Summer 2014 collection which included a cotton set of trousers and shirt featuring lace and skulls. Whilst these designs looked amazing in the collection lace for men hasn’t made its way to the high street as yet.

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Curtain Twitchers - article by Nicola Donovan

An article about net curtains doesn’t sound very exciting but this was a interesting read and included a whistle stop history of the industrialisation of lace in the UK which has seen demand for lace curtains dwindle and fall out of favour, the new millennium has bought vintage and hand crafted items back into fashion. Timorous Beasties have begun creating unique lace net curtains using old Nottingham lace machines. They also produce a range of other hand crafted products; fabrics, ceramics, furniture, lampshades and rugs. You can check out their shop at https://www.timorousbeasties.com/

Guiding Hand - Tuulikki’s Chompre’s Lace Collars

A page of beautiful lace collars collected by Tuulikki Chompre, Tuulikki is a Finnish textile collector. When she first started collecting collars they were easy to find and have now become much harder to source. Tuulikki stores her collars in a file cabinet, stitching each collar onto black paper. Her pursuits of collars has led to learning about different lace characteristics and she now has one of the finest collections in the world.

Drawn Thread Work - article by Bradley Quinn

The content of this article was not as you probably expect from the title! Lace is inspiring architecture and is being used to design walls, bridges and make fences. Examples of Lace being used in architecture included; the Lace Fence created by Joel and Jeroen Verhoeven with Judith Graauw, Shell Lace created by Toinkin Liu and Arup and The Urchins created by Jin Choi and Thomas Shine. I’d love a Lace Fence over my lovely but slightly boring wood panel fence.

Incidentally, the sculptural piece ‘The Urchins’ was featured as part of the Lace, Not Lace exhibition held at the Hunterdon Museum in New Jersey, USA.

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Black Holes - article by Amanda Briggs-Goode

Amanda article explores the work of three artists that are using lace and the notion of absence, these artists all use lace or imitate the look of lace;

Point D’Alencon - Sarah Jane Downing

This was a really interesting article about French lace. Back in the seventeenth century the desire for lace led designers to be competitive and try to outdo each other by finding the most ingenious new places to adorn with lace. This led to headdresses, ruffles and lace being worn from head to foot by women and men. Lace was even included as part of the French Military uniform!

The articles also touches on sumptuary laws and the development of the French lace industry and how this impacted the Venetian Lace Industry and vice versa.

I enjoyed the special Lace edition of this magazine and hope they do another edition dedicated to lace again. It was really interesting to read all the articles and see how artists and designers are still being inspired by lace. You can buy back copies of Selvedge at https://www.selvedge.org/

Jane FullmanLace, Lace-making, Lace EditionComment