Floral Design in Fashion Floral Design Background

A brief history of floral design in way

28 Feb, 2021 - iv min read

Today is Floral Design Mean solar day! Floral Design Day began in 1995 as a manner to celebrate the birthday of Carl Rittner, the founder of the Rittner School of Floral Design in Boston. On this twenty-four hours, nosotros're delving into our collections to give you lot some examples of floral design and looking at how floral pattern has influenced fashion through the ages.

Floral blueprint history takes united states all the way back to Ancient Egypt, where designs included order, simplicity and repetition of a particular pattern, with specific flowers having special meanings, such as the lotus blossom which was considered sacred. In Greek and Roman times, existent flowers were used to decorate wearable through bouquets, wreaths, garlands and brooches which would add a scented flourish for any occasion.

It wasn't until the belatedly-medieval period that we started to see floral blueprint included on fabrics. This can largely be attributed to China in the 12th century, when embroidered fabrics showing cute flowers and scenes of nature were used for clothing. This tendency swept through Middle Eastern and Asian countries, and thanks to the Silk Road, made its way into Europe via Italian merchants.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Italian cities similar Venice and Florence were renowned for their sumptuous velvet fabrics that incorporated gold and argent threads in large floral patterns, inspired by the fabrics imported from the Ottoman Empire.

These beautiful fabrics, along with embroidered silks made their fashion to French republic where, at the court of Louis XIV, superintendent of finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert pushed forward a plan to promote the new French embroidered silks inspired from those traded by Italian merchants. These silks made their fashion to England, however the designers here based their designs on botanical specimens and engravings.

Information technology was the manufacture of printed cloth that fabricated floral patterns available to the masses, rather than exclusively for those who could afford the expensive embroidered velvet and silks from the continent. Chintz, which originated in India, became popular in eighteenth century Europe, cheers to British and Danish merchants. This printed floral cloth (originally glazed calico) was an unknown technique in Britain until 1759. British manufacturers then began printing fabrics at a lower price, with designs ranging from large exotic floral motifs to modest floral sprigged patterns.

The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century increased the production of printed fabrics tenfold, making floral chintz printed patterns available for the masses, and specially women's 24-hour interval dresses. Later this century, artists of the craft movement influenced the designs of floral prints, with William Morris making the sunflower a pop motif.

This trend for printed floral fabrics continued through the twentieth century, featuring in Liberty prints of the 1920s, the hibiscus prints on men'southward Hawaiian shirts in the 1940s, tropical flower designs of the 1950s, blossom power in the 1960s, Laura Ashley in the 70s and 80s, and even through to the twenty-starting time century with the floral leggings tendency of 2014.

Clothes (open robe and matching petticoat), fabricated in cream silk brocaded taffeta with a very fine rib and self-stripe and woven blueprint of small-scale daisy like flowers, quite possibly Spitalfields silk. Possibly worn by the donor's peachy, great, swell aunt as a wedding dress, c.1770-1775.

Dress (bodice and skirt), cream brocade with coloured sprigs. The fabric is c.1760-65, merely was remade c.1900 into the dress y'all meet today.

Left: Men's waistcoat, long blue silk embroidered with argent thread, c.1730-1740. This waistcoat besides has separate sleeves with the same silvery embroidery on the cuffs. Correct: Men'south waistcoat, single breasted, foam corded silk, embroidered with a sprig pattern, c.1760-1799.

Pelisse, believed to have belonged to Jane Austen, woven in silk on a brown gilded basis with all over pattern of oak foliage motif in yellowish, 1814.

Dress. Bodice and overskirt, originally an open gown, cream silk brocaded with bunches of wine and pink flowers tied with trailing argent ribbons, fabric c.1750, remodelled in 1850s and again in 1870s, elbow length pagoda style sleeves, low square neckline edged cream motorcar lace, later trimmed with a deep band of burgundy coloured velvet attached at the waist, frock front, bustle at the back, the whole outfit trimmed with majestic satin ribbon and narrow silver complect.

Left: Evening dress, black silk chiffon with printed design of tulips in muted shades of dark scarlet and dusty pink with beadwork detail, lavish beading on printed area and around neckline, c.1923-1925. Right: Summer dress in printed cotton with brown and gray exotic jungle impress on cream background, c.1955-59.

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