The history of embroidered design on garmentry can be documented back to ancient Egypt where the use of linen cloth was prevalent and stitch patterning of silver, gold, and colored silk threads would pattern tunics or dress the hems of clothing. Burial remains of Pharaohs and their entourage give proof to the value and use of embroidered cloth. Mention of needlework in biblical texts also attests to the favor of embroidery among populations in the Middle East over millenia as a form of ornamentation or as particularly suited to covering edges of clothing that had been frayed and worn over time. The Babylonians traded their embroidered fabrics with the Greeks and generally the Mediterranean region had access to the skill in decorative work practiced along the Euphrates River.
Embroidered garments were favored by the Church and the complemented the growing liturgical tradition while the noble classes would distinguish themselves also in the use of extensively ornamented fabrics. Women’s lives during this era were furthermore largely circumscribed by social codes and they had to spend much of their time indoors; families would send their daughters to their lords’ castles to learn embroidery, spinning and weaving and prepare them for a life of dedication to the delicate arts. It was a skill that was highly esteemed and every young lady was expected to have a certain level of accomplishment in it. Royal ladies such as Queen Katharine of Aragon, Catherine de Medici, Mary Queen of Scotland were renowned for their skill with the needle. Embroidery pattern books from the 16th century do reflect on the practice of embroidery among monks but it remained largely a practice particular to the woman’s role as a domestic being..
During the middle ages the fabrics used most for clothing were wool and linen. The tradition of spinning wool for fiber had existed for more than 5000 years and by the medieval period in Europe wool was established as the standard fabric for all classes. The gradations of thread quality determined the cost of certain types of wool fabric but everyone, from peasant to landowner to royalty, wore wool as a staple of their wardrobe. The peasant classes would afford the coarser wool for their simple tunics, cowls and headwear while the landed classes would have fine garments made of wool woven as fine as silk, dyed in rich hues, and often enhanced with embroidery. Silk as a popular material for costume was not easily available to western Europe until the period of the Crusades when the materials and methods of oriental fashion were brought back by the crusading armies. Linen, too, was used for undergarments but was not as valued as wool because linen threads could not be spun to the same levels of distinction as wool and linen fabrics were not as good as wool in absorbing color dyes.
In medieval Europe the wool trade was particularly a phenomenon of England’s dealing, mercantile class and became its leading industry, at its peak accounting for close to 90% of the revenues. The significance of wool to the development of England’s economy is even manifest in church structures that were built to grandiose scale with money from the wool trade—known as wool churches. England dominated the commercial routes of the material, closely managing exportation and essentially monopolizing distribution.
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Flanders and Italy also became centers of textile manufacture in their own right. Flanders was known for its skilled craftsmen adept at spinning raw wool into yarn and weaving it into rich cloths. The trade in wool also meant specialization of craft and production, and different Flemish towns gained reputations for the | |||||||||
manufacture of particular products. The commerce generated by the textile industry between Flanders and Italy also eventually led to exchange in artistic and cultural ideas toward the end of the Gothic period and what was to become the movements of International Gothic art and the Renaissance.
*image—Brueghel—Village Wedding Feast, 1567
*image 2– calendar page for November of Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry 1410-1416
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