[Close-Up] The Lace Of Princess Kate's Wedding Dress Has Become An Endangered Object Exhibition, Can It Last For A Second?

Lewis, who has 200 years of history, is in danger because the factory has been closed down.

Recently, an exhibition of this kind of lace is being held in Shanghai.

Princess Kate is wearing a wedding dress.

During the fashion week, Shanghai is always bustling with excitement. In addition to the new products in the city, many fashion related exhibitions are held.

An exhibition called "love lace" is in progress at the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA).

Lace is the theme of the exhibition. The lace dress produced by 14 French lace factories is exhibited.

From the theme of the exhibition, this exhibition is somewhat professional and academic in order to popularize what is called "Lewis lace". The 14 clothes are made of a lace made of Lewis (Leavers).

As for size, 14 clothes plus a video art device are not really big.

Curators, however, have moved a lot on how to present exhibits, in order to narrow the distance between exhibits and the public as much as possible so as to reduce the limitations of themes and scale.

For example, 14 clothes have chosen the world-wide well-known female characters as inspiration, including Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monro, Madonna and so on.

For example, the imaging device exhibited with the costumes is directed by Pierrick Sorn, a French director, and was performed by French actress Anna Mouglalis, who starred in the movie Chanel and Stravinsky.

Anna Mouglalis in the relevant images, wearing 14 costumes on display, the corresponding 14 celebrities one by one deduction.

Many people also come to the "last words" in propaganda.

In fact, the 14 factories that made the exhibits are the last 14 Weiss lace factories still operating in the French Calais and the colon.

"They are still using Lewis looms.

Only the lace produced by these machines can be called Weiss lace.

The curator of the exhibition, Pascal Gautrand, founder of French land technology consultancy, said in an interview with interface news.

"Love lace" exhibition site

Why are there only 14 left?

For non professionals, Weiss looms or Lewis looms that weave such lace are unfamiliar names.

But if we talk about products made of this kind of lace, many people should think of it at once.

Like the luxury underwear brand La Perla, Lewis lace is always used as an important raw material for products.

Many of the Valentino and Elie Saab dresses worn by female stars on the red carpet will also be heavily used by Lewis lace.

In addition, these lace also include materials such as Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, Chloe and so on, which are often used in making high quality garments. In recent years, the most famous lace production should be the wedding dress worn by the British Kate Princess "century wedding".

The wedding dress of Princess Kate uses Lewis lace.

There is a saying that column Weiss lace is "Routh Routh" in lace.

The location of this material can also be guessed.

It is rare and expensive, and of course there are exquisite and magnificent workmanship.

This positioning can be attributed to the existence of the Weiss loom, which greatly improves the production efficiency of delicate lace.

It was invented in 1813 by a man named John Levers.

The essence of the machine is an improved version of the Old Loughborough lace weaving machine used by most factories earlier.

It enables 16000 yarns to follow the established patterns, and to make the finer, higher color fastness and stable quality lace.

Before that, exquisite lace can only be made by hand.

Even a simple pattern takes a skilled worker for a month or even longer to complete.

This also determines that lace can only become a luxury at that time, even if the nobles and nobles are at the top of their necklines and cuffs to decorate them with lace.

In the end, the queen Marie, who was sent to the guillotine for extravagance and dissipation, was guilty of a large number of lace used in the gorgeous dress.

The portrait of Queen Marie, who was sent to the guillotine, her

There are always complex lace decorations.

However, the advanced nature of this productive force has completely belonged to the past with the development of the times.

On the one hand, although it is machine production, it is very demanding for human resources to operate such a huge machine.

Moreover, the machine operation process is complex, so the manpower input needs to be trained professionally and accumulated experience for a long time.

In other words, the process of mechanized production is actually more similar to semi manual manufacture.

At the same time, such a machine has a long production cycle and low output, so its limitation characteristics are determined.

This does not satisfy the growing demand of the masses, and to some extent, violates the birth of machines to increase production and reduce production costs, so that more people can get quality products at a lower price.

This determines that the customer group of Lewis lace is relatively stable, which has always been dominated by high fashion and underwear brands.

The ready-made garments of these brands, especially customization business, have been relatively stable, which determines the limited demand.

When manpower costs and machine costs are rising, it is easy to imagine that Weiss's lace factory is facing a business dilemma.

In addition, "talent is indeed a problem, we really need more new people to join the industry," Pascal said. "And now there are no factories to produce Weiss looms. Now there are only more than 1000 such machines in the world. Most of them are in France, Canada and the District of Delhi."

So it is not surprising that the number of Lewis lace factories is decreasing year by year.

Up to now, there are only 14 left to go together.

Lewis lace factory

Modern Weiss factory workers are using Lewis looms.

Do exhibitions prevent factories from dying?

The factories that were able to survive generally received the help of capital.

For example, Groupe Halesco, the parent company of Sophie Hallette, who provided lace for Kate's wedding dress, received a small share of Chanel in 2016.

This allows another Lewis factory Codentel to get an investment from Groupe Halesco130 million euros.

The two factories are combined to make Groupe Halesco's Weiss loom production line more productive and form a certain scale advantage.

Desseilles, a lace factory that also attended the exhibition, was bought by Yongsheng group, a textile company in Hangzhou, China.

At present, Li Chunyan, President of the company's My Desseilles SAS, told the interface reporter that Yongsheng group knew through China's textile association that Desseilles was facing bankruptcy and liquidation.

At that time, France's relevant associations and institutions actively sought buyers worldwide in order to maintain Desseilles.

"I think local governments and related institutions also hope that these factories and traditional crafts can be preserved, so that they will even connect with China to see if there are any Chinese companies interested in factories."

Li Chunyan said.

After being bought by Yongsheng group, Desseilles can continue to operate according to the traditional way of work. "We have left most of our employees and have only made the necessary streamlining and adjustment. This may be the reason why we finally win over the local companies to buy this factory."

"Love lace" exhibition site

The government and related non-profit organizations play a vital role in protecting Lewis's lace factory and related industries.

In addition to finding a way for factories and enterprises that are on the verge of bankruptcy, they have been working hard to win fame for Lewis lace.

The exhibition was co sponsored by the General Administration of French enterprises and the Senna District in France under the initiative of Calais, France.

"We hope that through the exhibition, more consumers will be able to understand Lewis lace and know why the lace is precious. Of course, we will invite some investors and business customers."

Gautrand said.

The intention of inviting investors and business customers is obvious.

This is pave the way for introducing new investment to these traditional factories in the future.

Consumer advocacy is also essential because consumer attitudes have a great influence on the willingness of customers and investors to purchase and invest.

"We put the first stop of the exhibition in Shanghai, and also feel that the Chinese consumers can understand and appreciate Lewis lace now."

Gautrand believes that the Chinese market in the upgrading of consumption contains great opportunities to be captured by Lewis lace products. "China is now also advocating the protection of traditional culture. From this point of view, we also believe that Chinese customers should be able to accept the contents of the exhibition."

In the current official plan, the exhibition will also be held in Beijing. China is the only country that has many cities to become hosts.

Aside from China, the exhibition also plans to visit Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow, Brazil, St Paul, New York and Paris.

Gautrand said that if they had the chance, they would also like to take the exhibition to more cities in China.

"Love lace" exhibition site source: popbee

Lace factory 2

In France, the propaganda of Lewis and lace has never stopped.

An important reason is that factories need new talents to join.

To this end, the local government has also set up a special lace school.

When Li Chunyan talked about the operation after taking over Desseilles, he said that these schools did supply new workers for factories.

However, she also mentioned that if we want to attract more high-end talents, especially in the field or even overseas, we need to upgrade Lewis lace and the fame of the factory itself.

"Therefore, we consider building brand, in addition to serving the business customers, we also want to produce products for consumers, and increase the added value of products through the establishment of brands."

Li Chunyan said.

In her plan,

The competition of the industry itself is already very bounded. Therefore, Desseilles's own brand will try to enter the home field, which is related to the life of consumers, and there is still room for competition.

Taking into account the cost and output problems, products will be positioned as luxury goods.

Desseilles, which has been invested by Yongsheng, shows a pformation path of one lace factory.

Most factories still want to deepen the corporate customer market.

Details of "love lace" Exhibition

Gautrand said that many factories began to focus on medical gauze.

。

This is a new opportunity that factories have discovered in recent years besides the fashion industry.

There is no complex requirement for textures, but it is exquisite in terms of fineness, flexibility and durability, and is in line with the characteristics of Lewis loom products.

There are also factories looking to invest in improving the current Lewis loom, incorporating new technologies into them, or trying some new models.

We seek new business opportunities through technological innovation.

"They have been looking for new business opportunities, and we are doing our best," Gautrand's tone makes him feel confident. "Although the demand for life has been well satisfied, I believe there will still be someone who needs Lewis, because it represents beauty, tradition and reality, a part of culture and civilization, and is something that people want to retain in a rapidly changing era."