Toile de Jouy
Sometimes, the most iconic trends come from the bottom. They start small, but because of their simplicity and genius, they rise and endure through centuries.
We are in the south-western suburbs of Paris, in a commune of less than 10,000 inhabitants, and we stumble upon Château Églantine, a castle turned into a museum celebrating one of the most recognizable fabric patterns ever. The commune is Jouy-en-Josas, and it is the birthplace of toile de jouy.
If you thought this was a 2020/2021 trend re-vamped by Maison Dior, well - you are mistaken.
This unique rural-esque pattern has been circulating since the year 1760, when German entrepreneur Christophe Philippe Oberkampf (1738 - 1815) opened a small textile factory in Jouy-en-Josas.
The factory production was much more variegated, but these one-of-a-kind cotton or linen pieces became extremely appreciated by the French upper classes, particularly by queen Marie Antoinette and empress Joséphine Bonaparte: that’s how their diffusion began, hence making the factory one of the most important indienneries of the XVIII century.
Initially, the printing process was entirely manual: fabric was washed, wringed and pressed under metal grids multiple times, to make it smoother and more permeable.
Subjects were also manually printed on the neutral-tone fabric with wooden carved stamps, and they were only of 2 types - floral polychrome prints, and monochrome rural/gallant subjects, typically inspired by French painters like Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher. Originally, these scenes were printed in grey tones, perfectly contextualized with the rocaille style in fashion during those times. Towards the end of the century, though, blue and red hues took over, and even today those are the most common colors associated with toile de jouy.
The manual printing was lately replaced by an automated process based on copper reels, which enabled a higher and faster production as well as an infinite combination of decorations. Automation also caused a drop in prices, and toile de jouy started being utilized to upholster living room and bedroom furnitures.
After 1813, the Jouy factory ceased its primacy and toile began being produced all over France.
The uniqueness and the preciousness of this kind of fabric was made popular thanks to the French upper classes, but the decorated pieces kept on living and maintained their value all over the world.
Nowadays, these prints are often offered in post-baroque and shabby chic contexts.
It is incredible how, from a small factory in a small town, a product rose to become a true status symbol and which value endures even today.
As mentioned in the intro of this article, Jouy-en-Josas is situated in the Île-de-France area, not far from Paris and Versailles, and it would definitely be worth visiting the Musée de la Toile de Jouy, e in 1977, which aims at celebrating and perpetrating the creation and the history of the fabric, as well as hosting numerous interesting artworks and exhibitions.
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