Embroidery

 

Embroidery is an ancient form of needlework that has been used to decorate and communicate with textiles all over the world. Embroidery can add color, texture, richness, and dimension in terms of form and aesthetics. When applied to clothing, it can reveal the wearer's wealth, social status, ethnic identity, or religious beliefs. Embroidery is typically done with cotton, wool, silk, or linen threads, but other materials such as beads, quills, metal, shells, or feathers may also be used. Some materials, techniques, and stitches are shared by many cultures, while others are unique to a particular region.

Historical Overview

This art form's origins, which are mentioned in the Bible and Greek mythology, are unknown. Lanto Synge, a textile scholar, believes it originated in China and has documented early surviving fragments dating back 4,500 years. Embroideries from the fifth century B.C.E. have been recovered from tombs in South America.

Religious institutions have been among the most generous patrons of embroidery throughout its history. The Medieval church in Europe, for example, fostered one of the greatest peaks in needlework history—Opus Anglicanum (English work). During the Middle Ages, a type of needlework made in England was widely exported throughout Europe. Opus Anglicanum was known for its artistry of ecclesiastical vestments, which was worked on by highly skilled professionals in embroidery workshops. The sophisticated embroideries were worked with silk threads in a split-stitch technique and also used an underside couching technique to secure the decorative gold and silver threads. Couching is an embroidery technique that involves laying threads in a design on the surface of a base fabric and sewing them to the fabric with small stitches that cross over the design threads. The religious designs were well thought out and executed in needlepainting, or acupictura. Flowing circles and geometric patterns were used to create figures of the Virgin Mary and saints, as well as religious scenes.

The potential of embroidery as a carrier of narrative and ecclesiastical power is demonstrated in Opus Anglicanum; at the same time, the courts of Europe applied embroidery to secular dress, whose lavish decoration served to display secular power and prestige. Embroidery production and consumption became increasingly codified during the Medieval period. Guilds governed professional embroiderer training, while sumptuary laws attempted to limit the wearing of embroidered garments to specific socioeconomic classes. Floral embroidery was frequently used in Renaissance court costume. Queen Elizabeth I's wardrobe inventories include gowns embroidered with roses, oak leaves, and pomegranates. As with Opus Anglicanum, metal thread work was used to convey the subject's prestige—in this case, human rather than divine.

For centuries, European court dress was frequently lavishly embroidered as a status symbol. Catherine of Aragon is credited with encouraging the use of Spanish-style embroidery, rich in blackwork, when she arrived in England in 1501 with embroidered blackwork as part of her trousseau. Blackwork is a type of embroidery stitched in monochrome on white or natural linen that originated in Islamic Egypt in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It was traditionally worked in black, but it was also done in red, blue, and dark green, and it was frequently enriched with gold and silver threads. Backstitch or double-running stitch, a reversible stitch used for collar and cuff edgings that can be seen on both sides, is used to execute geometric and scrolling patterns. Because it was worn out or recycled, little of this dress remains. Much information about historic costume is gleaned from inventories and portraiture. Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) so clearly defines the stitching technique used in their elaborate costumes in portraits of Henry VIII and the royal family that the double-running stitch is also known as the Holbein stitch. Portraiture from the eighteenth century reveals much about the elegance and refinement of embroidery on high society gowns.

Embroidery was practiced in various settings and by various levels of society, as it has been throughout many time periods and cultures. Men and women both worked in professional workshops, while women embroidered at home for domestic and recreational purposes. Furthermore, as the following case illustrates, producing embroidery at home for sale has been a means of economic sustenance for women in many cultures.

Whitework embroidery, which is done with white thread on a white background, is practiced in many countries.

Hardanger-a counted thread technique that originated in western Norway and was brought to the United States by emigrants-Madeira cutwork, Dresden whitework, and Isfahani whitework are a few examples. In terms of dress, some of the most popular whitework was produced in Scotland and Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ayrshire whitework is a fascinating example of the interaction of professional designers, workshops, individual women, and commercial and philanthropic interests within the fashion system.

Floral motifs worked with fine cotton thread on a cotton ground, typically in satin stitch, stem stitch, and needlepoint in-filling, distinguished this intricate whitework. It was used to decorate babies' christening gowns, women's dresses, and undergarments. It was labor-intensive and delicate in appearance. Its production was highly organized by commercial firms and philanthropic organizations interested in improving rural living standards. The cloth was printed with a woodblock or lithograph design, which was then distributed to individual households and executed by women and children. The finished cloths were sent to depots in major cities, where they were made into garments and sold in the United Kingdom or exported to Europe and America through agents. By the mid-nineteenth century, Ayrshire whitework had grown into a significant industry, with a single firm employing 20,000 to 30,000 people.

In this context, another distinct embroidery movement emerged in Scotland—the Glasgow School of the early twentieth century. Influential teachers such as Jessie Newberry and Ann Macbeth revolutionized embroidery instruction by emphasizing self-expression in design and a more simplified approach to form, which typically included appliqué outlined in satin stitch.

Embroidery and Couture

Hand embroidery was included in the battery of haute couture's specialized techniques from the start due to its decorative potential as well as its ability to connote status. The lavishly time-consuming, specialized nature of the art, as well as the high cost of the materials, made it the ultimate symbol of luxury. Embroidery houses, which employed highly skilled designers and technicians, became an essential component of the couture industry. The House of Lesage was the most well-known of these.

It's fitting that Charles Frederick Worth, the designer of Empress Eugenie's court attire, was a master of incorporating embroidery as a status confirming (or conferring) accoutrement. An early design of bead-embroidered moire won a medal at the 1855 Exposition Universelle. Jeanne Lanvin usually avoided using patterned fabrics for embroidery. She was one of the first designers to use machine embroidery as a decorative motif, incorporating parallel line machine stitching.

Designers like Mary McFadden and Zandra Rhodes have embraced embroidery, with a focus on the manipulation of textiles for artistic effect. When combined with other techniques such as stenciling, batik, quilting, or handpainting, embroidery highlights the textile as a rich surface, similar to a canvas. Designers in other cases use embroidery to float over the surface fabric. Dior was a master of this illusionary approach to embroidery, which ignores seamlines and construction in order to create its own field of vision.

Ethnic embroidery has long inspired couture, from Lanvin's 1920s designs to Yves Saint Laurent's "peasant" blouses and skirts. Other designers have capitalized on long-standing associations between embroidery and femininity; the sensual aesthetics of Nina Ricci and Chloé are frequently enhanced by delicate embroidery.

World Traditions

Embroidery is practiced in all cultures. Influences and cross-fertilizations can be traced back to trade routes and migration patterns. In other cases, techniques and stitches are regionally specific.

China has a long and rich embroidery tradition centered on Imperial court ceremonial dress. Silk ceremonial robes were heavily embroidered beginning with the Tang dynasty (618-907) to communicate the wearer's status within a strict hierarchy. Mythological creatures, birds, flowers, waves, and clouds were among the symbols used to locate the wearer or allude to personal qualities or aspirations for longevity and good fortune.

The embroidery on robes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reached a pinnacle of technical perfection. Satin stitch, chain stitch, and Chinese stitch—a type of backstitch interlaced with a second thread—were used to meticulously render motifs. Tiny knots were used to intricately fill in areas. The liberal use of couched metal thread conveyed status and wealth, as it did in Renaissance court dress in Europe and Medieval church vestments.

The development of embroidery traditions has been aided by imperial patronage throughout its history. The Ottoman court in Istanbul was a big supporter of embroidery. However, embroidery was also heavily used in everyday life in the Ottoman Empire. The court commissioned fine embroideries from workshops and professional women working at home, but most women's daily activities included making embroidered clothing and household items. Embroidery was a significant commercial and domestic enterprise throughout the Empire. Dival is the most common Ottoman embroidery style, in which metal threads are secured to the ground with couching threads.

Native American embroidery has its own unique cultural expression. Porcupine quillwork and beading techniques predate European exploration of North America. This decorative art was traditionally embroidered on skins, but after the arrival of Europeans and the subsequent acquisition of new materials, it was worked on cloth. Coats, jackets, shirts, hoods, leggings, moccasins, and accessories such as medicine bags were all embellished with needlework.

Sewing was the most common technique used in quillwork embroidery out of all the techniques used. Until the white trader brought needles to America, these designs were done with bone bodkins. Backstitch, couching stitch, and chain stitch are all terms that are used in modern sewing.

Another long-held Native American practice was beading, which began with crude beads made from natural materials. Later, Europeans introduced finer quality beads known as trade beads, which were highly desired by Indian tribes for use in their embroideries. Beads were strung on thread and sewn onto the skin or cloth according to the pattern, either in little rows or in an outline formation.

Native American embroideries communicate belief systems on one level. This, too, has been an important function of embroidery around the world. Shishadur, or mirror work, is one example practiced by the Baluchi people of western Pakistan, southern Afghanistan, and eastern Iran. Silvered glass fragments attached to a cotton ground were thought to deflect evil. A folk belief in Eastern Europe that embroidered designs on clothing protected the wearer from harm influenced the development of embroidery. Dresses, blouses, skirts, aprons, shirts, vests, and jackets, as well as ecclesiastical vestments, were adorned with beautiful embroideries.

Eastern European needlework has a distinct appearance due to the precise use of materials, designs, techniques, and colors that, when combined, can often indicate a specific region of the country. Embroidery stitches from the straight, satin, and cross-stitch families are used, but specialty stitches in Ukrainian embroidery include the Yavoriv stitch, a diagonal satin stitch, and the Yavoriv plait stitch, a cross-stitch variation.

Embroidery was still a popular fashion accessory in the early 2000s. Designers and consumers can choose from an infinite number of world traditions in a global marketplace. Mirror work, for example, was absorbed into 1970s western fashion trends and has periodically resurfaced as a trend in clothing and home furnishings. Embroidery has remained a prominent feature of couture and has had a significant impact on ready-to-wear. As sewing machines for home sewers become more sophisticated, the use of machine embroidery on home-sewn clothing has grown. And, perhaps in response to mass production, a thriving industry has sprung up around the provision of custom embroidery as a means of personalizing clothing.