What Is Chantilly Lace?

How is Chantilly lace made?

Handmade Chantilly lace is bobbin lace: threads wound on bobbins are twisted and crossed to form the flowers and the net ground together. Machines have imitated it since the first half of the 19th century.

The handmade method

Britannica and the FIT Fashion History Timeline describe three elements:

• Solid areas in half stitch. The flowers and leaves are worked in half stitch, an open stitch that keeps the lace light.
• A hexagonal net ground. FIT names two grounds: the Chantilly ground (also called point de Paris or kat stitch) and the fond simple. Merriam-Webster defines the lace by its "6-sided mesh ground".
• A thick outline, the gimp. Each motif is edged with a heavier thread. FIT describes it as several strands of flat, untwisted silk.

Large pieces were not made in one go. FIT notes that stoles, capes and shawls had to be made of smaller strips stitched together, and that from the 1840s makers joined them with an invisible stitch called point de raccroc. Even fascinators, fall caps and fan leaves needed some joining.

The machine method

By 1840, Britannica records, the warp frame, the pusher machine and the Leavers machine were all producing imitations. According to WWD, the Calais area acquired Leavers machines from England in the early 19th century. FIT dates machine lace "in some form" to at least 1809, but says it only became far more cost- and quality-effective than handwork in the early 1900s.

Where the name comes from

The lace is named after Chantilly, north of Paris, where Britannica says bobbin lace was made from the 17th century and the town's silk laces from the 18th century. FIT cites a single 1904 account, by Samuel L. Goldenberg, crediting its founding to the Duchess of Longueville. The lace historian Pat Earnshaw, quoted by FIT, records that production is said to have flourished between 1740 and 1785. The French Revolution destroyed the industry in the 1790s. Napoleon I revived it about 1804 and decreed that only Alençon and Chantilly laces be worn at court, but production later moved away from Chantilly because of costs.

What are the properties of Chantilly lace?

Chantilly lace is sheer and light, with a matte rather than shiny surface, and old silk pieces are fragile.

• Lightness. Britannica credits the half-stitch motifs with keeping the lace light.
• Matte lustre. Black Chantilly was made of grenadine, a dull silk, rather than a lustrous one (FIT). The V&A describes the 1840s black lace of Chantilly, Caen and Bayeux as "worked with non-shiny silk".
• Naturalistic design. Typical motifs are realistic flowers such as roses and tulips, combined with ribbon bands (Britannica). The V&A's shawl from the 1860s has a triangular shape with scalloped edges, a deep border of cartouches and oval medallions twined with sprays of leaves and flowers, and a central bouquet.
• Fibre. Merriam-Webster defines it as a silk, linen or synthetic lace. FIT notes that the earliest Chantilly was made of flax and the black lace of silk.
• Fragility. The iron-based dye used on black silk tended to oxidise, fade and rot the fabric, and the raccroc joins remain lines of weakness (FIT).

Black and white Chantilly

Black is the colour most associated with the name, but it was not the first. The V&A says early 19th-century French silk lace from Chantilly and Caen was mostly white or natural coloured (blonde). As blonde lace went out of fashion in the 1840s, makers introduced black lace (V&A), and black Chantilly shawls were extremely popular in the mid-19th century (FIT). Britannica links the mid-century fashion to shawls and mantles worn over the crinolines and later the bustles of Victorian fashion.

How is Chantilly lace graded or measured?

Chantilly lace has no recognised numerical grade; what separates one piece from another is whether it is handmade or machine-made, and for machine lace, where and on what machine it was made.

The one formal mark is the Dentelle de Calais-Caudry trademark. WWD describes it as a registered trademark for lace made on Leavers looms by lacemakers in Calais and Caudry, owned by the French Lace and Embroidery Federation. The mark grew out of the original Dentelle de Calais trademark, created in 1958. The mark tells you the place and machine; it does not mean the lace was made by hand.

How does Chantilly lace appear on a clothing label?

"Chantilly" is the name of a lace, not a fibre, so a fibre-content label lists the fibre the lace is made of, such as silk or nylon, rather than the word Chantilly. Under US rules (16 CFR 303.7), nylon is the generic name for a manufactured fibre made of synthetic polyamide.

When the lace is only a trim, the label may not mention its fibre at all. Under 16 CFR 303.12, decorative trim covering no more than 15 per cent of the surface area can be left out of the fibre statement, which then reads "exclusive of decoration" if the trim's fibre differs from the main fabric. So a dress labelled "100% silk, exclusive of decoration" may have lace of a different fibre.

How do you tell good Chantilly lace from poor Chantilly lace?

Look closely at the mesh, the filling inside the flowers, the outline and the joins: together they tell you whether a piece is handmade or machine-made and how carefully it was finished. A side-by-side study of two black Chantilly pieces by the Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden gives the clearest checks.

1. Look at the mesh. On handmade lace the hexagonal mesh is slightly irregular. On machine lace the meshes are mostly identical, and the pusher machine imitates the Chantilly ground closely (TRC).
2. Follow the threads in the flowers. Handmade half stitch is open and regular, and its threads follow the direction of the pattern. Machine filling runs in a steady direction that reads as parallel lines (TRC).
3. Find the outline. A good piece has a clear, thick gimp around every motif, usually a bundle of threads (FIT). The gimp alone does not prove handwork: on the TRC's machine-made piece it was darned in by hand.
4. Look for joins. Large handmade pieces such as shawls were made in strips, and splits along the joins are common (FIT). A very large piece with no joins at all does not fit the handmade method.
5. Turn it over. Both handmade and machine Chantilly can look the same on the front and back, so this test does not separate them (TRC).
6. Read the label or tag. On modern French machine lace, the Dentelle de Calais-Caudry mark identifies Leavers lace made in Calais or Caudry (WWD).

Red flags

• "Chantilly" used for any black lace with flowers. The V&A notes the name stayed in use long after production left Chantilly, so the word alone tells you little.
• A vintage black silk piece that splits or crumbles when handled: the iron-based dye has rotted the fibre (FIT).

How do you care for Chantilly lace?

Care for modern Chantilly lace according to its care label, and treat antique black silk Chantilly as fragile, because its iron-based dye weakens the fibre over time (FIT).

• Check the joins on any large antique piece before wearing it, since FIT describes them as lines of weakness.
• For a modern garment with lace trim, follow the care instructions for the whole garment; if the label says "exclusive of decoration", the trim may be a different fibre from the main fabric.

Is Chantilly lace sustainable?

No source gives lifecycle data for Chantilly lace as such, so its environmental footprint depends mainly on its fibre and on how long the garment is worn. Silk and synthetic versions carry the impacts of their fibres, so check the label to know which you are buying. Longevity is possible: the V&A's silk shawl from the 1860s has survived more than 150 years. FIT records that demand for lace returned in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including in designer ready-to-wear and as a punk accompaniment.