Dress fabric

Object Type
This fabric, intended for ladies' gowns, is a brocaded silk tobine (i.e. a silk with an additional flushing warp). The technique of brocading allowed different colours to be introduced into the pattern of a fabric in specific, sometimes very small, areas. It was a more laborious process for the weaver than using patterning wefts running from selvedge to selvedge, but the resulting effect could be much more varied and lively. The additional effect which makes this silk a tobine is the ribbed ground, created with an extra warp. The silk has two further decorative effects introduced in the weave - satin stripes, and trails of white flowers created with an extra weft, known inn the 18th century as a flush pattern.

Design & Designing
Dress silks from France had dominated fashionable taste across Europe since the later 17th century. Designers for the English silk industry observed French trends and followed their developments in design and technique, adapting them to a recognisable British style for the home and important export market. The striking motif here of leopard skin stripes was influenced by the taste in French silks for fake fur effects. After 1766 French silks could not legally be imported into Britain, but French silk design continued its influence, until heavy, elaborately-patterned silks became unfashionable with the change in women's dress styles in the later 18th century.