International Textile

The history behind the beauty of french antique textiles

It was during the Roman Empire days that silks were being imported from Eastto Europe. Also, it was on the 11th and 12th centuries were the religiousconquest of Middle East and the Crusades spurred into France the flow ofEastern goods.The fledgling French textile companies were responsible in giving sourcesof inspiration to the colors and design of the Eastern yard goods. The nextfew centuries saw the French textile industry experienced a spurt of growthfuelled by the demand from the French Royalty. The growth was also party dueto the court demands from the King and teh papal based in Avigon, France.It was on the mid seventeenth century when France was one of the majorimporters that imports foreign produced cloths. Though France's textileindustry had rapidly grown, there has been a great competition where ingoods in Italy and in the Far East were popular in producing cloths as well.Then, that was the time when King Louis XIV established new laws that weredesigned to lessen foreign yard goods imports and to promote silk industryof France by improving the quality of goods produced. In this case it willincrease French Textiles export.The laws that were established by King Louis XIV were designed to improveand regulate the quality of French's cloths and silks. Regulations framedby the people related to the technical aspects of silk production. Theyquantified the exact fiber content, the permitted number of errors in thecourse of a production run and also the number of threads in a warp or aweft.. Furthermore, these new regulations made an industry division fromvarious regions in France. With these new King Louis' it resulted in apositive way where in both the quantity and the quality of silks in Francewere increased. Unfortunately, it was also during the time of King Louis XIV that anotherlaw was established and passed to protect the silk industry from beingcompeted. In this case, it prevents printed cloths from being manufacturedand sell. Needless to say, this restrictive law was finally lifted in themid seventeenth century.