Nicola here. A couple of weeks ago I visited the Whitchurch Silk Mill. Built in 1813, on land owned by Winchester Cathedral, it was built by the Hayter family and then developed by William Maddick. Through the 19th and early 20th century it produced silk, providing work for the local populace and going through some hard times and some good like many small businesses. From 1911 the mill wove silk for Burberry, producing 22 different colours of silk lining for their famous raincoats. In the 1980s after falling into disrepair it was restored as a working museum using traditional machinery and methods.
Visiting the museum was completely fascinating. Weaving silk is a very complicated business but it was so much easier to understand when you could follow the different steps in the process and even have a go on the silk looms yourself. It was also a real insight to see what working conditions were like in the Victorian age – some of the child workers started at nine years old!
The Whitchurch mill has always specialised in stripes and there was a very interesting exhibition on show about striped designs and their history. Stripes in
nature have long been an inspiration for designers. Stripes can be used as both camouflage and as warning. Both prey – zebras, for example – and predators such as tigers, have stripes that allow them to blend in. Snakes, various insects and even badgers have them to scare the predators away.
The history of stripes is really interesting. Striped fabric is achieved by alternating colours of the yarn in either the warp or the weft of the material. In medieval times the line from the bible which read “You will not wear upon yourself a garment that is made of two” was interpreted to suggest that stripes denoted sinfulness. They became the symbol of outcasts and criminals – the bold pattern marking people out as “other”. Lepers, prostitutes, clowns, heretics, criminals and hangmen were all required by law to wear striped attire to make them immediately visible and set them apart. Striped prison uniforms first appeared in the 1920s in America. The high visibility of stripes was also useful for discouraging prisoners from trying to escape whilst the broad black and white horizontal stripes were also considered vulgar and a means of humiliating the wearer. (One of my favourite dresses has broad black and white stripes – I love it!)
However, by the end of the 18th century, the virtues of symmetry as reflected in the neoclassical movement had also led to stripes starting to appear on furnishing, curtains and wallpaper. From there it was just a small step to them moving into fashion.
A prize exhibit was a Newmarket yellow and white striped waistcoat from the Regency era that had belonged to Thomas Crewe Dodd Esquire of Edge Hall, Malpas, Cheshire. This particular stripe became very popular in the Regency period as a result of the British presence in India. This particular stripe was often called “Bengal” or tiger stripe.
Then there are the fashion-forward mariners of the French Navy who adopted an iconic blue and white striped design for their uniforms in 1858. There was a practical side to this idea – it made it easier to spot a man overboard! This design trend was picked up by Coco Chanel in her 1917 collection and the Breton stripe became the pinnacle of cool. From that point the stripe was seldom out of fashion!
The Whitchurch Silk Mill has always specialised in stripes. In 1999 they produced a silk banner for the Winchester Great Hall, a 13th century medieval hall
that had once been part of Winchester Castle. As the hall is the home of the iconic round table of Arthurian legend it needed grand silken banners to match!
In the contemporary world, stripes have been adopted by different groups and communities to show unity and make a display of their presence. They are also a useful graphic to demonstrate things such as climate change.
I love the derivation of words and the other thing about the Silk Mill that fascinated me was the list of phrases that have sprung from the weaving process. “On tenterhooks” meaning being in a state of anticipation, comes from a tenter, a wooden frame on which cloth was hung to prevent it from shrinking when it dried. “Dyed in the wool” meaning someone who is stubborn in their opinion derives from the fact that wool dyed before it is being spun into threads and woven into cloth is the least likely to fade and change. And “cloth ears” which I remember from my childhood was used to describe someone who didn’t listen – it derives from the fact that weavers and spinners suffered deafness both from the noise in the mills and also the cotton dust that gathered in their ears!
Silk is an amazingly strong and versatile fabric. Satin will reflect the light and create stunning ballgowns. Ottoman silk is much sturdier for academic and legal gowns for example, and gauze is incredibly light and filmy. It’s no wonder that when the Chinese discovered silk, they allegedly kept it a secret for three thousand years! It was far too precious to share.
Are you a fan of stripes in clothing and/or furnishings? Do you have a favourite style?