By Julia Brennan and Kaitlyn Munro

Recently I met my lovely friend Claire Chen, who was wearing a gossamer tulle skirt, which fluttered around her like a butterfly. It was enchanting, so was she, and my curiosity about tulle was stirred. I started noticing the tulle explosion everywhere …… in the fashion magazines Chanel, Dior, Mango, Topshop, H&M were vying for romantic coverage of their blithe poufy creations. Familiar from childhood mostly as ballet tutus, or that stiff white net of my 1960’s Holy Communion veil, it is, in fact, a most important and compelling fabric in my everyday conservation profession………as the nearly sheer material we use as a protective overlay to treat damaged fabrics. My relationship with tulle net is in fact very formal and prescribed.

Tulle net is an important part of our daily conservation activities…

…but meanwhile, tulle is popping up all over!

So, what is the story of tulle? And, what is the difference between tulle and bobbinet?

The story starts with bobbin lace, its net-like structure, painstakingly handmade, by interlacing threads over and under. More mechanized methods started in the 16^th c with ‘knitting’ or stocking frame machine. In the early 1800’s, in the UK, a Mr. John Heathcoat, studied the hand movements of bobbin lace makers and replicated them into a new invention—the bobbin net machine. The term bobbinet refers to the machine made net fabric that we use today, and is also known as tulle.

Today, I purchase conservation 100% nylon bobbinet from an ingenious man who is still using the same 19^thc machinery and the exact same “knitting” process. Mr. Lawrence (aka Dukeries) sells bobbinet and other fine tulles to the conservation trade, as well as to lingerie and costume sectors.

The name ‘tulle’ originates from the French city of Tulle, (turf of politicians Chirac and Holland). Here, around 1700, the French began to knit a fabric with hexagonal meshes, similar to a honeycomb. Later, Queen Victoria wore meters of fluffy WHITE tulle bobbinet as her wedding dress, establishing the tradition that continues today. What’s a wedding dress without tulle? In the 19^th c, designers like Worth started layering it underneath skirts, adorning the outside of dresses, and draping it over hats, shielding a woman’s face like a fashionable veil.

Ballet dancers adopted fluffy sculptural accent skirts called ‘tutu’ – immortalized by Degas’s sensuous pastels and the statues of the single dancer…..The NGA Washington DC, has the original wax and clay statuette, with a silk tulle skirt (Five layers!) This is the only little dancer that Degas had his physical hand in making. There is the possibility that the extant tutu is indeed the one Degas exhibited in 1881. Or to learn more about the sculpture, explore this link. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, recently replaced the tutu on their Degas bronze dancer with a gauze fabric…this fascinating conservation project can be seen here.  

Today tulle is a global industry; made of silk, cotton, wool, polyamide, polyester, lurex; it comes soft, stiff, sparkly, ‘invisible’, elastic, chemical free, and in hundreds of colors.Tremendously fun, versatile and dramatic, the uses for tulle are endless, from Mardi Gras floats to mosquito nets; you can flock it, print on it, laminate it, dye it, stitch it, crunch it. 

 

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*  “Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me- […]

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –”

—Emily Dickinson – dressed for immortality

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You can contact Dukeries directly:
Lawrence Taylor, Managing Director, Dukeries Textiles & Fancy Goods LTD
T: 0115 9816330; F: 0115 9816440  |  [email protected]

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