FRENCH LINEN
Vintage
French linen
Elizabeth Baer shares her expertise on hunting
for beautiful French linens and
offers guidance on how best to use them for
home furnishing
Why
do you recommend French linen for interiors?
First of all it is available in many
shades and weights so you can find exactly the sort of
linen that you need for any decorating
job, whether it’s for lampshades, loose covers or
bed ends. Its beauty is also its quality.
It is the national textile product of France: they
have always made linen and used
it, just as in England cotton is something we have
done traditionally very well. It has
an expensive, attractive look because it is a quality
fabric, which is mostly hand spun
and woven; the French do this to a very high and
advanced level. They are skilful
at producing linen from the finest see-through variety
called batiste, to the
coarsest weight which you can use as rugs on the bedroom floor.
What
do you search for when looking for French linen?
I look for large sets of matching
sheets that have all come from one household. They would have been bought for
one person’s dowry in large quantities a long time ago, and
are usually kept together. This is
what I usually sell to decorators or to private people
who are clever at making do.
Can
vintage French linen, therefore, be an economical solution?
Vintage French linen is a
frightfully good way of making do for those who are clever with a sewing
machine and a needle and thread. Large pieces can be used for covering
bigger items of furniture, like sofas,
or for long sets of curtains. Leftover bits can be used for cushions, aprons
and so on; it’s very economical.
Is
vintage French linen suited to furnishing any particular period of property?
The fabric has been used since Roman
and Greek times, so if you are decorating an historic house it is correct for
every period from the earliest time to the most contemporary. My French linen sheets
have been used in Trump Towers in New York and also in Shakespeare’s birthplace
in Stratford-Upon-Avon, so it’s suitable for both situations. My vintage French
linen is also used a great deal for sets or costumes for films, ballet, opera
and theatre. As linen is spun in the same way as much earlier fabrics, it is
correct for the particular look and texture of any early era that they are looking
for. It falls in beautiful folds, is classic, plain and has enormous appeal,
also to men.
How
do you wash and refresh vintage linen?
The French often sell the linen dans
son jus – in its own stew. This means you buy it
pretty much as it was when taken
out of the attics or sheds of an old farm. You soak vintage French linen in cold
water with no chemicals for one or two days, then wash it in boiling hot water,
lay it out on the grass in the sunshine, if possible, and you will find when it
is dry the marks mostly will have gone.
How
can you use pieces that do still have flaws?
Lots of French linen sheets do
have flaws and that’s what you could use on dining chairs, stools, and short
curtains for cottages.
Can
you recommend any fairs to buy vintage linen in England?
I never go to English fairs but there
are some such as Ardingly, Newark and Kempton Park. There are quite a few French
dealers who bring French textiles over here, but English linen dealers are
almost non-existent.
Is
there a fail-safe hunting tip for vintage French linen?
You need to have a book containing
samples, swatches and measurements if you are
searching to furnish a room.
Do
you have a favorite linen pattern or era?
I like large, definite patterns
of French linen. The best of French patterns were printed by the French house
Braquenié, which designed for two centuries or more in large-scale Eastern designs
and Indiennes based on Indian fabrics, amongst others. The company was bought
about 50 years ago by Pierre Frey. It is very expensive but you won’t find that
quality in other makes.
GABY TUBBS FOR ENGLISH HOME
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