Brocade
Brocade is a woven fabric with a pattern made by extra, supplementary weft threads that are worked only where the design needs them.
In a brocade, the pattern is not printed or embroidered but woven in. Alongside the ordinary weft that makes the cloth, the weaver adds extra weft threads, often of a different colour or of metal thread, and works them only across the areas of the design.
How do you recognise it?
Turn it over. Where the extra threads are not needed on the front, they float across the back, so the reverse of a brocade shows long loose threads. The ground can be a plain weave, twill or satin. Historically, patterned silks of this kind were woven on a drawloom, which needed a second person to raise the pattern threads.
Sources
- Brocade (glossary). University of Alberta Museums
- Brocade. Stephens College art history glossary
- Brocade. School for Advanced Research
See also
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