What Are Sequins?

How are sequins made?

Sequins are small discs stamped or punched from a thin, shiny material and pierced so they can be stitched down; that material has moved from metal through gelatin to plastic. They are one of the main forms of embellishment sewn onto fashion fabrics.

• Metal. The first sequins were stamped metal discs, according to a textile conservator at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
• Gelatin. A Rijksmuseum textile conservator describes gelatin, a collagen product from animal bones and skin, being made into coloured plates from which discs were punch-pressed. She dates practical use from about 1890 until the 1930s.
• Acetate. Smithsonian magazine credits Herbert Lieberman, working with Eastman Kodak, with developing sequins of cellulose acetate, the plastic Kodak used in its film stock.
• Mylar and vinyl. The same article says Lieberman’s company, Algy Trimmings Co., adopted Mylar, a transparent polyester film, to wrap the coloured sequin. Vinyl plastic later replaced the Mylar-and-acetate combination as more durable and cheaper.

How sequins are attached

Sequins are sewn on by needle, one at a time, or with a hook. In Lunéville, France, an embroiderer named Louis-Bonnechaux Ferry had started adding beads and sequins to tambour embroidery with the Lunéville hook by 1865, according to the Textile Research Centre in Leiden. Sequins can also be laid like tiles or fish scales, standing almost upright from the cloth for extra volume and gloss. Ready-made sequin fabric may have its sequins chain-stitched in place.

Where do sequins come from?

Who first sewed shiny discs to clothing is not recorded. The earliest example Smithsonian magazine gives is the gold sequin-like discs sewn to garments in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (14th century BC), discovered in 1922. The article says it is assumed they were meant to prepare him for the afterlife. See ancient Egyptian clothing for the period.

The same article says that people with nomadic lifestyles kept coins close to the body by attaching them to clothes. Metal sequins decorated dress through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Where the word comes from

The word began as the name of a coin. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces English sequin (recorded from the 1610s for an Italian and Turkish gold coin) through French sequin to Italian zecchino, a Venetian gold coin, from zecca, “a mint”, and ultimately Arabic sikka, “a minting die”. The sense of an ornamental disc or spangle appears by 1852, and the adjective sequined by 1889. Smithsonian magazine glosses sikka as both “coin” and “minting die”.

The 1920s: metal or gelatin?

Sources disagree on what 1920s sequins were made of. Smithsonian magazine says the discs “became all the rage on garments in the 1920s” and were typically metal, with electroplated gelatin arriving in the 1930s. The Cincinnati Art Museum’s textile conservator says the opposite: when its 1925–1926 dress attributed to Chanel was made, sequins were typically gelatin or sometimes casein, a milk-protein plastic. The Rijksmuseum conservator also dates gelatin from the late 19th century. See 1920s flapper fashion for the wider context.

What are the properties of sequins?

Each sequin material has its own weak point, and that decides how a sequinned garment must be treated.

Gelatin’s light weight made it better suited than metal or glass to fragile fabrics. Sequins overlapping from top to bottom create a nap, with a smooth direction.

How do sequins appear on a clothing label?

Sequins matter most on the care label: in the US, care instructions must cover every component of a garment, “including non-detachable linings, trim and other details”, so the instructions for a sequinned dress must suit the sequins as well as the cloth. The US Federal Trade Commission also requires a reasonable basis for every instruction, and a warning such as “Do not iron” where a shopper could reasonably use a harmful method. A garment that can be neither washed nor dry-cleaned must say “Do not wash — Do not dryclean”.

How do you tell good sequin work from poor?

Good sequin work sits on a backing strong enough to carry it, lies flat in one direction, and comes with a care label that accounts for the sequins.

• Pinch the backing. Threads magazine advises a strong, evenly woven or knitted silk or polyester base.
• Stroke downwards. On a well-cut garment the smooth direction of the nap runs from the top down.
• Turn it inside out. Look at how the sequins are held. Threads advises avoiding chain-stitched sequin fabric, because single sequins cannot easily be removed from it to sew a clean seam.
• Check the seams. Threads describes the traditional method: sequins are removed from the seam allowances, the seam is machine-stitched, and sequins are hand-sewn back one at a time. Threads also describes hand-stitched seams that leave sequins in place.
• Feel the interfacing. Any interfacing should be sewn in, not fused, because Threads rules out heat near sequins; for the same reason it advises pressing the lining before it goes in.
• Read the care label. It should address the sequins as well as the cloth. Question a heavily sequinned piece with no heat warning.

Red flags in vintage pieces

• Missing or warped sequins under the arms of a piece from the gelatin era: the Cincinnati Art Museum’s 1925–1926 dress attributed to Chanel lost its sequins at the armpit to heat and moisture.
• Cracked sequins, which can point to acetate.
• Curled sequins that have lost their shape, which can be a sign of ageing vinyl.

Beaded haute couture garments, fashionable in the second half of the 20th century, “were and continued to be made in Lunéville”, according to the Textile Research Centre.

How do you care for sequinned clothing?

Follow the care label and keep sequins away from heat: Threads magazine says not to iron or apply heat of any kind near them. Garments with gelatin ornaments could not be washed, steamed or ironed, and the Rijksmuseum conservator says museum pieces with gelatin ornaments need specialist attention from conservators. The Cincinnati Art Museum describes its gelatin sequins as moisture- and heat-sensitive; its conservator rules out drinks near the dress “after midnight (or ever!)”. Smithsonian magazine says Mylar protected sequins from the washing machine, but do not assume any particular piece will survive one; the label needs a reasonable basis for what it says.