What Are Embellishments?

What counts as an embellishment?

An embellishment is anything attached to a fabric or garment after the cloth has been made, purely to decorate it: thread, beads, sequins, stones, cut fabric shapes or fringe. That separates it from decoration built into the cloth, such as the woven patterns of brocade and jacquard, and from colour put on by dyeing or screen printing.

US labelling law uses the term “decorative trim” and lists four ways of applying it: “by embroidery, overlay, applique, or attachment”. Those four methods are a useful map of the whole subject.

How is embellishment applied?

Most embellishments are stitched on with a needle or chained on with a hook; some are glued, and some carry a painted or gilt coating.

With a needle

Hand or machine stitching either builds the design from thread alone, as in embroidery, or carries each bead, sequin or fabric shape onto the ground cloth. The stitching should be tied off securely wherever a thread ends or is interrupted; otherwise it can unravel from a break and release the beads it holds.

With a tambour hook

Tambour work replaces the needle with a fine hook. The fabric is stretched on a frame, the worker makes chain stitches on the wrong side, and the threaded beads are anchored on the right side. Each chain stitch is a locking stitch that holds its bead in place, and once the hand motions are learned, the work goes much faster than beading with a needle.

The hook is also called the crochet de Lunéville, after the French town where embroiderers developed a form of tambour embroidery around 1810, working chain stitch on very fine tulle. By 1865 a local embroiderer, Louis-Bonnechaux Ferry, had begun adding beads and sequins to the work. In the latter half of the 20th century many beaded haute couture garments were made in Lunéville.

With adhesive and coatings

Some decorations are glued rather than sewn, and some are painted or gilded. A 2011 Laundry and Cleaning News analysis of dry-cleaning failures by Richard Neale describes foil backings glued to the flat base of stones, gilded trims and painted bobbles that softened or came away in solvent, even where the care label allowed that solvent.

What types of embellishment are there?

The families below are named for what is added to the cloth; each has its own entry.

Embroidered net lace sits on the boundary: Lunéville work began as chain stitch on tulle and may be classed as a form of embroidered net lace.

How do embellishments appear on a clothing label?

Under the US Textile Rules (16 CFR 303.12), decorative trim that covers no more than 15 per cent of a garment’s surface area is exempt from fibre-content labelling. If the label says nothing about the trim’s fibre and it differs from the main fabric, the fibre statement must be followed by the words “exclusive of decoration”.

Embellishments count for the care label too. Under US law, the Care Labeling Rule covers textile clothing but exempts items such as shoes, gloves, hats, belts and neckties. It requires instructions to cover all components, including trim. The maker must also hold reliable evidence that the whole garment survives the method stated. The FTC gives beads known to be damaged in dry cleaning as an example where the maker may need test results.

How do you tell good embellishment from poor?

Good embellishment is fastened securely on the reverse, attached in a way that suits the care label, and light enough for the cloth to carry. In another case from Neale’s analysis, a garment cleaned by the mild method on its label lost many beads. The stitching had not been tied off properly; his fix was three reverse stitches, or an equally secure method, wherever the thread is interrupted.

• Turn it inside out. Find where each run of beads or sequins starts and stops, and check that it is fastened off rather than simply cut. A continuous line of chain stitch on the reverse is the trace of tambour work.
• Check for loose beads. Run a hand lightly over the work. Conservators check for loose beads before moving beadwork and do not assume a piece is secure because it has been handled safely before.
• Look for glue. A stone with no visible stitching may be glued. Adhesives and foil backings can dissolve in dry-cleaning solvent, so read the care label with that in mind.
• Feel the weight. Heavy beadwork strains seams and threads when hung. Check the seams and the ground cloth around the most heavily worked areas for pulling.
• Read the care label. It must account for the trim. A warning such as “Remove trim” is a sign the maker has thought about the decoration.

How do you care for embellished clothes?

Follow the care label, because in the US it must account for the trim as well as the base fabric. When you take an embellished piece to a cleaner, point the decoration out: in one case, glass pendants broke when the trim struck the machine’s rotating metal cage, and Neale suggested the cleaner could have protected it with cotton wadding.

For old or fragile beadwork, conservators are stricter: never immerse it in water or cleaning solution, usually leave dirt caught between beads alone, and refer cleaning to a conservator where possible. Keep any bead that falls off in a labelled container with the garment, because a repair needs matching beads.