How We Used Embroidery to Tell Stories
Embroidery is one of the world’s most ancient and widespread traditions, with roots stretching back to the dawn of history. Using thread, yarn and beads, embroiderers have captured myths, great battles and so much more on fabric.
In previous centuries, large tapestries were a useful storytelling medium for illiterate populations. France’s famed, 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry is 50 centimetres tall and a whopping 70 metres wide. Its dozens of embroidered scenes recount the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
The Tapestry was treasured as an important document and was periodically displayed in a local cathedral as an awe-inspiring history lesson in pictures.
This Chinese embroidery fragment dates back to around 400 BCE. It is one of the oldest surviving examples of embroidery.
This segment of the Bayeux Tapestry depicts King Harold’s death during The Battle of Hastings.
How We Used Embroidery to Signal Value
Until recently, embroidery was also an important signifier of class. It was reserved for the clothes and decor of powerful people due to the immense human labour demanded.
Why did these important figures want to hand-stitch certain symbols or motifs into existence? Whether embroidery was displayed in a great public space like the Bayeux Tapestry or used to decorate an important personal object such as a clergyman’s handkerchief, it can reveal what was prized or revered by people who lived in the past.
Because of their human touch, these objects can paint a picture of how societies celebrated, worshipped, and related to each other.
Portrait of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni circa 1689. Embroidery was once an exclusive privilege of society’s elite, such as monarchs or religious leaders.
Cutwork and needle lace from Italy circa late-16th to early-17th century
How We Made Embroidery Accessible to All
In the present, automation and computers have made embroidery far easier.
Modern factories and home sewers now use computerised machines to rapidly produce embroidery, with minimal human labour.
Thanks to technology, embroidered apparel, stationery and homewares can be found everywhere, even at ‘dollar-store’ retailers such as Daiso.
Factory machine-embroidery in 2010s India
Daiso embroidered towels. Embroidered items are now found at all market levels.
How We Got Lazy With Embroidery
Some argue that automation has made embroidery disposable.
‘Premium mediocre’ is a new fashion trend that uses cheap add-ons such as machine-embroidered cartoon characters or logos, to make generic items more appealing.
Where embroidery was once applied thoughtfully by hand, nowadays it is used to trick consumers into believing a lazily-designed item took more time and labour to produce than was actually involved. Modern embroidery rarely carries a deeper cultural meaning, as past examples once did, and has lost much of its wonder and storytelling powers.
In today’s high-tech world, machines have made our lives easier than ever. However, it may be worth questioning: at what cost to our sense of value?
A USD$895 embroidered Gucci T-shirt It’s not just a fast fashion problem: luxury brands have also been accused of using embroidery as a quick fix for lazy design.
Second-hand designer fashion websites are overstuffed with barely-worn items from recent seasons. Many of these clothes were sold at higher prices due to their embroidered details.
A USD$3,400 embroidered Loewe handbag What is the message or intention behind this Spirited Away handbag? What kind of insights do you think historians could derive from this as an artefact of our times?
Sources: Apparel Views, Britannica, Fibre2Fashion, Popular Science Monthly/Wikisource, The Business of Fashion, The New York Times, The Victoria & Albert Museum