The next development happened when the Leavers machine was smuggled to France –\u00a0broken up in parts disguised as scrap metal!\u00a0This made lace even more popular as the French competed with the English lace industry, and created an amazing variety of patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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Detailing on lace dresses, c. Dolce & Gabbana<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Today the French lace making industry is still centred around a small area of Northern France, in towns like Chantilly, Valenciennes, Alencon and Cluny. The industry has been kept alive by the passion of its local workers, who have stepped in to buy the machinery themselves when faced with closure.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/a><\/div>\n In turn, the machines were sold to Far East producers and lace production in France was scaled back.\u00a0Now the Far East creates\u00a0wonderful lace too. Amazingly, all modern Leavers lace is still produced on the same machinery, invented 200 years ago!<\/p>\n <\/a><\/div>\n <\/div>\n And English lace has become a luxury once more, with just a handful of small companies producing it.\u00a0For more on the modern English lace industry, there’s an interesting BBC feature\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n For my Heavenly Collection<\/a> of vintage inspired wedding dresses, I use lace from all these different sources – choosing the best from ateliers in Nottingham, France and Japan.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n I’ve included some of my original vintage wedding dresses above, too, to show a variety of lace. Some of these are no longer available – but I always have\u00a0lots<\/i>\u00a0of beautiful lace vintage dresses at my studio in West London (as well\u00a0as my own collection of\u00a0reproduction vintage dresses<\/a>). Do come and have a look! To make an appointment, just contact me here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thanks to Abby at Cherished<\/a> for the loan of her beautiful headwear, to the lovely\u00a0Robert Lawler<\/a>\u00a0for photography. And\u00a0to you, dear reader, for stopping by today!<\/p>\n Love<\/i><\/p>\n Helena\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Heavenly Vintage Brides<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Reader I didn’t realise how much I love vintage lace until I started sourcing the perfect fabrics for my own collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses. My search took me to specialist ateliers all over the world, where I became completely absorbed in the beauty of the vintage and reproduction lace I saw. On… Continue reading A GUIDE TO VINTAGE LACE WEDDING DRESSES Part 2: the story of modern lace<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1,101,93,104,113,157,158],"tags":[47,16,11,37,58,59],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chantilly-lace","category-general","category-heavenly-collection","category-inspire-me-blog","category-lace-vintage-wedding-dresses","category-lace-wedding-dresses","category-vintage-wedding-blog","category-vintage-style-wedding-dresses","tag-chantilly-lace","tag-heavenly-collection","tag-lace-vintage-wedding-dresses","tag-lace-wedding-dresses","tag-vintage-wedding-blog","tag-vintage-style-wedding-dresses","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n