Brocade began as the cloth of kings. In France — the capital of fashion — it found a second life, carried from the court of Versailles onto the runways of the great couture houses.
✨ Fun fact: The French silk city of Lyon has supplied luxury weavers for centuries — the same looms that dressed Versailles later fed the ateliers of Paris couture.
Brocade at the court of Versailles
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the French court was the most fashionable in Europe, and gold-shot silk was the language it spoke. At Versailles brocade was not only worn — it covered the walls. Rooms were hung with figured silk, beds curtained in it, chairs and canopies upholstered to match, and the royal Garde-Meuble ordered these cloths by the bolt from Lyon. The court even changed its silks with the seasons — lighter weaves for summer, heavy brocades for winter.
On the body the rules were just as strict. A nobleman wore the habit à la française, a woman the robe à la française with its sweeping back pleats — and for the most formal presentations, the grand habit de cour, cut from Lyon silk brocaded with gold and silver. Under Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour made herself the great patron of the Lyon looms; a generation later, Marie Antoinette's court dresses were the last and most extravagant flowering of the tradition.
The artists of the loom — Revel and de Lasalle
Behind those cloths stood designers as celebrated as any painter. Early in the century Jean Revel perfected the technique of points rentrés — interlocking the coloured threads so that a woven flower could be shaded like a painting. Later came the greatest of them all: Philippe de Lasalle (1723–1804), trained as a painter and so gifted he was called the Raphael of silk. From Lyon he wove hangings for Marie Antoinette and for Catherine the Great of Russia, designing the pattern, the loom and even the tools that made it.
Painted in silk — the court portrait
We know exactly how these silks looked because the court painters recorded them. In 1701 Hyacinthe Rigaud painted Louis XIV wrapped in fleur-de-lis and ermine — the definitive image of royal splendour, in which the robes almost outshine the king. A century later Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted Marie Antoinette in the shimmering court silks of her day. Like the great Italian portraits, these paintings are the finest record we have of the cloth itself.
Brocade on the modern runway
That love of brocade never faded; it returns to the catwalk season after season. Among the houses most associated with it: Dolce & Gabbana's Sicilian Baroque collections, Gucci under Alessandro Michele, and Dior — a continuation of the French tradition first built on the silks of Lyon.
The same cloth, a new stage
What moves us is the continuity. The brocade on a Paris runway is the same idea as the kamkhwab of Banaras: silk woven with gold and silver into pattern, made to be worn on the most important days of a life.
Brocade at Khinkhwab
We weave that living tradition by hand in Varanasi. Explore our Brocade Fabric collection.
Frequently asked questions
How was brocade used at the French court?
At Versailles brocade was worn as court dress and also used to hang walls, curtain beds and upholster furniture — the royal Garde-Meuble commissioned Lyon silks by the bolt, and even changed them with the seasons.
Who was Philippe de Lasalle?
The most celebrated Lyon silk designer of the 18th century (1723–1804), trained as a painter and known as the “Raphael of silk,” who wove hangings for Marie Antoinette and Catherine the Great.
Why is France considered the capital of fashion?
Paris has been the centre of high fashion since haute couture was born there in the nineteenth century, building on the French court's long reign as Europe's style leader and the silk-weaving wealth of Lyon.
Which fashion houses use brocade?
Dolce & Gabbana (Sicilian Baroque), Gucci under Alessandro Michele, and Dior are among the most associated with brocade and jacquard.
Sources & further reading
On the silks of Lyon, the designers Jean Revel and Philippe de Lasalle, and brocade at the French court, see the open-access textile collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Lesley Ellis Miller, Selling Silks (V&A).
