#effect fabrics

[vintagefashionplates]

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Self-portrait with two pupils, 1785

Lucy, Countess of Carlisle by Anthonis van Dyck, 1637

Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond by Sir Peter Lely, ca. 1662

Young woman at her toilet with a servant by Gerard ter Borch, 1650

A Lady of the Spencer Family by Anthonis van Dyck, ca. 1633–8

Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary by Anthonis van Dyck, 1632.

Shot silk in historical paintings

Shot silk is a plain-weave in which the warp is one color and the weft another. The result is complex new tints and shades wherever the fabric gets folded or creased. It was popular in 17th and 18th century, of course only for the very wealthy.

Every since visiting the workshop of Antico Setificio Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, I have wanted to weave my own shot silk. Shot silk is a

[vintagefashionplates]

Bizarre silk

Bizarre silks are a style of figured silk fabrics popular in Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Bizarre silks are characterized by large-scale, asymmetrical patterns featuring geometrical shapes and stylized leaves and flowers, influenced by a wave of Asian textiles and decorative objects reaching the European market in these decades.

Around 1707 and 1708, bizarre designs combined distorted florals with architectural elements such as arches, canopies, pergolas, and diagonal fences. From 1709–10, the scale of the patterns was reduced and elements of chinoiserie and japonaiserie appeared.

The aesthetic of chinoiserie has been expressed in different ways depending on the region. It is related to the broader current of Orientalism, which studied Far East cultures from a historical, philological, anthropological, philosophical, and religious point of view. First appearing in the 17th century, this trend was popularized in the 18th century.