DREAM WEAVER
Given its fine appearance, so delicate, so precious, almost divine, in fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that Calais-Caudry lace was handcrafted by lacemakers using their legendary meticulous eye for detail. No-one would imagine that such delicacy and refinement could be produced by the Leavers weaving loom, named after its inventor and imported to France from England in 1879.
Consisting of a series of bearings, mechanisms and manometers, the machine produces metre after metre of elegant, quintessential, complex lace of unrivalled finesse at a slow but steady pace.
Lace manufacturer Solstiss was founded in 1974 - nearly a century after Leavers lace was first created -, following the union of five renowned lacemakers (Ledieu Beauvillain, Henri and Victor Machu, Robert Belot and Edouard Beauvillain) who decided to pool their expertise and share this with the world.
Solstiss’s century-old expertise has been passed down from generation to generation without ever leaving its workshops, and whilst the hands that operate the looms today may have changed, the practice itself remains the same. The secret to the inimitable results that Solstiss achieves lies in the long and unique training process that its lacemakers undergo. The video below lifts the veil on our manufacturing secrets.
The refinement of Solstiss lace is appreciated and exported the world over. Having been declared a ‘Living Heritage Company’ in 2011, the firm has really made a name for itself in France in the space of just a few years and is now synonymous with quality, mastery and carefully preserved expertise, which is why Solstiss also supplies the most prestigious names in the fashion world.
DREAM WEAVER