TUSSAH, SHANTUNG & DONEGAL HAND MADE TIES

We’d like to take you with us to discover three different fabrics around the world, their origins and their characteristics.

INDIA
THE TUSSAH

In India since about 1870, with periods of decline and recovery, the silkworm is bred. In particular this country is the homland of tussah which is mostly found in the north-eastern Deccan, in Bengal, Assam, Burma and on the Himalayan slope.

Compared to traditional silk, tussah silk has an inimitable finesse, a great resistance and excellent recovery following traction and prolonged use of the fabric.

Tussah is a fabric with rustic and irregular appearance, with a texture of Tussah silk and a retouched and slightly irregular yarn.

 

 

 

 CHINA

THE SHANTUNG
Shantung silk is a rough-looking weave fabric that was born from the combination of culture and nature. It was born in Shandong a rich region in the west of China, on the shores of the yellow sea. As everybody knows the silk history in China is really long, a Legend has it that the birth of sericulture is due to Empress XI Ling Shi who discovered the qualities of the cocoon in 5000 a.c. In this region the union of two worms that contract the cocoon together, called a “duplicate”, gave birth to shantung. Shantung silk, once handcrafted on a loom, that has a lot of irregularity that seem flawed to an inexperienced eye, but which makes the fabric unique and so precious.
In conclusion Shantung is a braided fabric in taffetas with silk duplicate yarn characterized by a notable irregularity of the title. It is also performed with warp in shappe and double weft. It has been selected because the characteristic yarn that makes this fabric unique.

 

 

IRELAND

DONEGAL TWEED

Now let’s fly to Ireland, considered, in combination with Scotland, the home of tweed. Tweed emerged is Scotland and Ireland as a work suit, as a way for the farmers to battle the chilly climate that characterizes those lands. Only during the nineteenth century the wearing of tweed become a gentleman’s way of dressing.

The homeland of Irish tweed is the county of Donegal, where even today it weaves on wooden looms. Donegal is a fabric with carded and buttoned weft yarn and semi-combed in the warp.
Weft and warp in donegal are dyed in various tints, in fact donegal provides for the insertion of threads with bold colours.

The characteristics of Donegal are the rough surface and the sandblasted appearance, mottled in different colors, with many wool particles, called "buttons" coloured on the surface and the sweet hand.
Its colours in ancient times also indicated the social status of its wearer: kings could use up to seven colours, poets and bards six, warriors three and servants one.

The colours had different origins: green came from heather, brown from peat, dark red from lichen scratched off rocks, purple from myrtle.

In antiquity considered a winter fabric it was mostly used for jackets and sports suits

 

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