The History of Lace

Lace is a work of art and an ancient craft which consists of many different fibers. Some of these fibers have included silk, flax cotton, gold and silver. It is remarkable how much lace has improved over the hundreds of years from simple decorating of clothing to adult costumes. This amazing development started many years ago and will now only grow in time.

It all began with the Ancient Greeks and Romans twisting beads on the frayed edge of clothing to give it more decoration or appeal. It was also noted to be popular back then for costumes. Then in the late 15^th century and early 16^th century is when most consider the starting point for lace. This took place in Italy and then Flanders, where they called lace, �Kant,� which means border or edge. The Flanders began organization of artisans called Guilds and became very wealthy by growing flax. By the end of the 16^th century the Flanders had already produced pattern books for their lace.

Later in the 1600s, mass production began in Honiton, England. Honiton lace comes from the name of the East Devon town of Honiton. This is located in the Southwest of England and is said to be where the purest and finest of all lace was produced. This lace was adopted by many famous and well known people, such as Queen Victoria. She once ordered a simple piece of lace and following her, some of the connoisseurs placed orders as well. Queen Victoria�s wedding dress was also trimmed with lace which started this trend for the wealthy. She happened to order it when the hand-made lace industry was in a decline. This is one issue that helped to develop the machine-made lace. It is also said to be where the name, Victorian lace originated.

Around 1760 is when the machine made lace was first identified, and by 1813 a bobbinet machine came available. Soon after, in 1832, the cotton thread was replaced by linen. During the climax of the 18^th century, the renaissance made lace very popular by using it for fashion. It replaced most embroidery. The reason for this was because the lace could be easily altered on the dresses and costumes. It was more convenient and simple to be converted from one piece of clothing to another, unlike the embroidery. This was also the time period in which lace became popular for collars, as well as cuffs.

Since this time, there have been a tremendous amount of methods and techniques developed with lace production and the types of lace that have been invented. Some of the types of lace are known as Duchess Lace, The Rosepoint Lace, Princess Lace, and The Renaissance Lace. Today, we benefit from this wonderful embellishment from wedding dresses to Halloween costumes. This magnificent fabric has a unique beauty and mystery about it. There are so many designs and qualities to the lace now, that it gives a great reason for one cherish the art and production of its existence.