P.LACE.S: looking through Flemish lace

Abstract

Lace has been a luxury item, sought after by royalty and the aristocracy, since the early 1600s. Fashion has traditionally driven lace production, and in the 17th and 18th centuries the lace trade was a significant contributor to the economies of many European countries. This exhibition catalogue for a show at MoMu, the Antwerp fashion museum, focuses on the venerable tradition of lace-making in Flanders, but places it within the larger context of the history of lace from the 16th century to the present. Historic pieces from international museums, including the Met (New York), the V&A (London) and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) are complemented by contemporary fashion (Van Herpen, Dior, Alaia, Prada, Loewe, Givenchy). These pieces, and their cutting edge production techniques, bring the history of Flemish-made lace up to the 21st century.

Contents

Foreword / Kaat Debo -- Introduction / Frieda Sorber -- 1. Lace : high tech from the 16th century -- The origins of lace / Frieda Sorber and Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols -- The early development of bobbin lace / Frieda Sorber -- The early development of needle lace / Frieda Sorber -- Tools / Frieda Sorber -- 2. Spotlight : shirts, albs and rochets / Wim Mertens -- 3. Key pieces : the Brussels and Geneva archdukes' coverlets -- Albrecht and Isabella's coverlet : a story in lace / Ria Cooreman -- Albrecht and Isabella's coverlet : a technological study / Nora Andries -- The archdukes' coverlets : a few afterthoughts / Frieda Sorber -- 4. Archives, sources and publications : an attempt to reconstruct Antwerp's lace industry / Marguerite Coppens -- 5. Spotlight : collars and cravats / Wim Mertens -- 6. Laces for England : the Antwerp entrepreneur Jan Michiel Melijn and his lace trade, 1681-1695 / Wim Mertens -- 7. Spotlight : headwear and coiffures / Wim Mertens -- 8. Technical aspects of materials used in 17th- and 18th-century Flemish lace from the MoMu collection, Antwerp / Iris Vanden Berghe -- 9. Spotlight : best linen for the lying-in rooms / Wim Mertens -- 10. Antwerp misses the boat : the development of part lace in Brussels and Brabant / Frieda Sorber -- 11. After 1750 : the Dutch niche market / Frieda Sorber -- 12. The tangible past : lace in 17th- and 18th-century doll's houses / Frieda Sorber -- 13. Style evolutions in Flemish lace from the late 16th to the mid-18th centuries : an overview / Wim Mertens -- 14. Lace, laser cutting and 3D printing in fashion : visual parallels / Romy Cockx.