Moire Dress Series Part 1

Moire Fabric, Moire Problems

C.I.41.21.4a, b Dress from the Met Museum

I do not need another ballgown...

I do not need another ballgown...

I do not need another ballgown...

Guys, it happened again. My ballgown loving heart has overwritten my senses and gone against my better judgement. My mind and soul have been hijacked by fashion plates and dreams of using the beautiful watermarked moire fabric in my stash. And with that push off the edge of sanity into the rabbit-hole of a new dress. I do not know if I shall survive this time, the journey shall be arduous and rough but the end shall be worth it. And with that dear readers, grab my blogging hand and lets start the adventure!

For fabric, I chose one of the more obscure of textiles. Its beauty forgotten, the name nothing more than a distant memory that everyone remembers reading about in some old dusty fashion history book, or seen in an obscure fashion plate. It is the Moire, a style of fabric used from medieval times to the 20th century. There are two ways to make the design but both involve a heated hot roller over the folded fabric. (Greenhouse fabrics, 2017) This texture is similar to how water will mark silk, thus it is sometimes called watermarked fabric, even though it is often made using heat.

Moire itself is not really a fabric per se but a finish. Traditionally it was made on silk, but is now applied to cotton, wool, rayon, polyester etc. There are other finishes which are considered to have the moire look but true moire is created using hot roller to change the warp of the fabric. Cartouche, Masalia, and Bengaline all have a moire look but are not made using the same techniques.  (Dictionary of Textiles, Harmuth, 1913)

The Dress on the far left shows moire effect.

If interested in looking for moire these are places below that sell moire to this day, just make sure that its apparel fabric not upholstery.
https://www.moodfabrics.com/fashion-fabrics/polyester/moire
https://www.fabriccarolina.com/shop-by-type/moire/
https://www.onlinefabricstore.net/hsearchresult.aspx?keyword=moire

HARMUTH, L. O. U. I. S. (2015). Dictionary Of Textiles (Classic Reprint). Place of publication not identified: FORGOTTEN Books.

What's a Moire? (2018, November 1). Retrieved June 7, 2020, from https://www.greenhousefabrics.com/blog/whats-moire