Categories: Fashion

Made for a woman | MODA.CZ

source: with the permission of Kristína Púcaťová

Lace is a symbol of luxury and was definitely not for everyone in the past. But even today, the price of, for example, hand-made silk lace is comparable to the price of an electric bicycle. It’s a tender image woven from dreams, fantasy and desire, and let’s face it, it looks best on a woman’s body. And perhaps it is precisely for that tempting idea that every woman loves lace and delicate embroidered tulle. And if someone says no, then she has not yet experienced what delicate lace can do to her confidence and attractiveness. These decorative appliqués are simply an inseparable part of the laundry, and perhaps they stand out best on summer, lightly tanned skin.

Kristína Púcaťová is a specialist in the finest lace and embroidery. He selects them, evaluates them, participates in the design and technological specification. His fingers are long and slender like a pianist, and the skin on them is as soft as a baby’s. “It’s necessary, delicate fingers feed me, they belong to the profession of materials specialist. And the materials for the linen must be very fine, non-embossed, soft to the touch and at the same time dimensionally stable, elastic and formable,” Kristína simply describes her profession.


source: with the permission of Kristína Púcaťová

The primacy of the three great powers

The invention of lace is appropriated by several European countries: Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. But decorative lace has been found in graves much older than the Middle Ages. In Cyprus, in the city of Kourion (note how similar the word lace is), archaeologists discovered 200 bone mallets and instructions for making mallet lace. All dated from the 4th century AD. But in truth, let’s add that the general popularity of lace and embroidery only occurred in a much later period – in the rich Baroque (17th and 18th centuries). Lace and embroidery were worn not only by ladies of noble origin and wealthy “towns”, but also by women from much lower classes. But you had to make such decorations yourself in the evenings. They were also widely worn by men, on collars, under the neck on the thighs, on sleeves and various shirt inserts. The priest’s liturgical vestments were very rich and often embroidered with gold and silver. Lace and embroidery have always been a sign of wealth and power.

By hand and on contraband machines

In Bohemia, lacemaking was known in the Ore Mountains and Šumava from the 16th century. In the Eagle Mountains, mainly in Vamberk, it has been developing since the middle of the 17th century, when a variant of Brussels lace began to be produced here. “E.g. in 1860, about 80,000 people were involved in the handmade home production of lace in the Czech lands. Today, the tradition of lacemaking is maintained for the most part only as a hobby and as an artistic craft,” explains Kristína. From the middle of the 19th century, even in Bohemia, lace began to be produced industrially on textile machines. Here in 1834 in Letovice in Moravia, on bobinet machines smuggled from England. At the beginning of the 21st century, there was about a single Czech lace manufacturer in Moravian Drnovice. And a well-known Czech manufacturer of elastic laces is Tylex in Letovice.


source: with the permission of Kristína Púcaťová

Soft as the skin itself

But be careful, especially with linen, lace and embroidery must be 100% fine and soft, they must not “bite” or irritate the skin, they must not let loose eyes and threads, and their surface must be smooth. For bras and panties, the lace and embroidery (embroidered tulle) must be elastic, as other materials on the underwear are also elastic. But they must also be strong enough so that they do not pull out on the circumference and on the baskets and hold the weight of even large breasts. The quality of lace is determined by several basic features: it is the type of ornament, the density and structure of the pattern. Of course, patterns are decisive in the selection. “Floral motifs are the most attractive, as the inspiration from nature is endless. Patterns from Japan are, for example, unusual for our eyes.

Preparing your own design for special linen embroidery is complex and takes a lot of time. The motif is trial stitched several times. “We change the width, add shapes, erase the leaves, emphasize contours and colors. The embroidery area must be proportionate to the entire width of the fabric (that’s a 22 cm waist) so that it looks rich on all bra sizes (both small B and large M). They must be able to handle the embroidery pattern in our different bra cuts – with a basket sewn from three parts, the so-called T-Fit, and seamless, covered with lace or embroidery, the so-called Perfect-Fit. It often happens to us that we design the application of embroidery on hangers separately directly for each specific model. They have an elongated shape on the width of the shoulder straps and basically it is a separate motif of some floral pattern from the embroidery, which we will then use on the girth, saddle or baskets. We just have to play with it for a while so that everything is perfect,” Kristín is not afraid to admit the complexity, who also adds that the color of the newly created embroidery is often the result of customer tests. The winning colors are those that are most popular with Czech women in the summer – i.e. powder with pink and nougat with black.

Today, lace and embroidered tulles used in the clothing industry are made by machine. And often even an expert has trouble telling the difference between lace and embroidery. Lace is a knitted fabric, for ready-to-wear it can be made of cotton, linen, silk or elastic fibers, namely knitted, crocheted, crocheted or, for example, scoured. Embroidery (embroidered tulle is most often used for linen) is an embroidered creation on a flat fabric, on elastic tulle, i.e. on that basic mesh. Both lace and embroidery are multi-colored today, which was definitely not the case in the past.


Source: Moda