How This 140-Year-Old Lace Factory Created Leavers Lace for Dior, Burberry and More | WSJ Coveted

Leavers lace is prized by dressmakers and fashion designers as the world’s highest quality machine-made lace, so refined it takes a magnifying glass to distinguish it from handmade lace. High-end fashion houses like Christian Dior, Gucci and Burberry have used the lace, and Kate Middleton’s Alexander McQueen wedding dress featured Cluny lace for the Royal Wedding. But only a few factories still make this luxury fabric, and they’re facing increasingly strong headwinds to get by.

WSJ visited the Cluny Lace factory outside Nottingham in England to see how Cluny Leavers lace is made, and capture the meticulous lace-making process that could soon disappear.

Chapters:
0:00 Leavers Lace
1:11 The Jacquard cards
3:28 Operating the machines
6:21 The battle for survival

WSJ's Coveted highlights the precision and process behind expertly-crafted cult favorites — from the pencils beloved by Disney animators to the sushi knives breaking thousands of years of Japanese tradition. These stories show how the smallest everyday items can be transformed into the ultimate luxury splurge.

#Lace #Fashion #WSJ

[lilithbachelder]

Watching this has inspired me to set a new goal: improve my sewing skills enough to purchase lace from Cluny, and make myself an edwardian lingerie dress inspired piece. I really hope that they find people to continue the work, and it's such a shame that the UK government doesn't subsidize and support these dying arts.

[carmenm.]

It’s so good that this documentary is here on YouTube now. It is high time that something happens. It’s British heritage and may not be lost. (Having said this I think it’s also world heritage). The tears in the eyes of the elderly gentleman at the end really got me😢

[shood]

The way he uses that punch card machine makes me think of an organist. His hands and feet all going at the same time yet all acting independently. The skill it takes is nothing short of amazing. Hopefully he can train someone before it's too late.

[NellBelle]

Lace making should be historically protected industry. I love making christening dresses using real lace. When the day comes and only nylon or polyester lace is available I will no longer make the gowns.

[Helen-qbgv]

If I lived in England I’d be begging for them to teach me to be the punch card operator. What a wonderful skill that contributes to something so beautiful and unique.

[mysteriousu]

In a situation like this to preserve the art form, the Gov can intervene by allocating funds for internship to students local or foreign whoever is interested to pursue.

People need to participate in local issues, elections, stand up for those who don't have a voice or power.

Sadly people spend their time on things that carry no value.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful art form.

[lifelearner]

My mother's family is from Nottingham, and my grandfather used to seek out orders for the lace company he worked for. I only visited his workplace once, and all I remember is the noise & smell. I wish now I had paid much more attention. I do however still have some pieces of the lace which my grandmother left me. Thank you for this video, you have brought back a memory I had completely forgotten about.

[becsutherland]

It would be very sad if no-one made leavers lace; it’s such an exquisite embellishment.

[piccalillipit]

*THEY NEED HELP MARKETING* because other industries producing quality traditional cloth etc are doing very well, tailors are very busy.

People are starting to appreciate quality traditionally made cloth and trimmings - I just snapped up 112 meters of Hand Woven Harris Tweed at auction and I know every single mm of it will sell in my suit commissions before the mass-produced modern stuff.

[madebylora]

I do some bobbin lacemaking and we often hear about how machines killed off the traditional bobbin lace trade. But watching this video was like watching a nature program when you suddenly feel sorry for the predator because they are now being hunted down by something even bigger! The “new” technology eventually becomes a traditional form in its own right and now that is also endangered. It’s sad.

[Zineme]

Hopefully this film will draw in the right persons to train for that card punching bit. That's pretty essential.

[AntelJM]

They’re not trying to survive. They need a modern apprenticeship scheme so that the job is a bit more varied for the individual worker, look to capture a different market than the one they seem so proud of (Royal wedding dresses and couture houses) and like someone else said, get a decent website, produce stock items and sell worldwide to the public, for instance to the many women who make their own wedding dresses. I went to have a look and maybe buy a couple of metres - surprise surprise, I couldn’t.

[SoberOKMoments]

The TV channel NHK World Japan has made many similar programs stressing the importance of passing these kinds of ancient skills along to a younger generation before they are lost forever. Pottery, clothing dyes, traditional food preservation - from pickles to making soy sauce - all are fascinating and many are at risk of being gone forever. Hoping the government or school system in the UK can step in to set up a teaching program for these lace makers.

[kevinnathanson]

Beautiful product, but folks.... This is learned helplessness. Digitize the cards and the patterns that "no-one can make ever again" and make the punchcards out of something more durable than cardboard for pete's sake! UHMW plastic comes to mind immediately. Scan the patterns that have the numbers written in and OCR/sequence them, and then make a machine that punches the patterns. This is not hard; a good high school robotics team could knock it out in a school year.
Their product is beautiful, but it's still a business, and businesses need to modernize (and market!) in order to survive.

[wickandde]

OKay so I tried to go buy some because that's my first go to whenever I see these types of videos. First of all they need to have a functional website, it's pretty buggy. Second of all they need to sell lace by the meter online. Thirdly they need to hire a person to learn over from the cardboard punch guy. For a business to thrive you need to be adaptable and focus on sucession planing and make your product accessible to the masses. No point whining. They live in England for g's sake, not in some war ravaged city with bad internet and import/export restrictions, if they put the effort to make it accessible they can do it.

[Gretchen-vhxt]

This makes me sad to see the extinction of an art form. Is this progress?😢

[dawsie]

I am surprised they have not thought of making a master out of Stainless steel as it can be lightweight enough when thinner and still strong enough to last longer than cardboard. But a machine can be created to punch the cardboard using the master key.
Because lace is so expensive today, I have been learning to make my own lace for a dress that I designed. Only because I wish to only use cotton and not nylon or polyesters. Both of those fibers create so much static on me, I’m tired of getting zapped when reaching out to get something off the shelves in the supermarkets. It’s why I have been converting my clothes from any nylon or polyesters to linen, wool, cotton and a few other fabrics just like linen.
Polyester clothes make you hot, sticky and sweaty and then it smells yuck, over time that smell just never gets washed out anymore so the garment had to be binned, it’s unless as rags as it does not soak up messes so your not able to recycle it as easy, sure you could make a rug out of it but I’m not sure how well it would turn out or last. The worst fabric ever invented was polyester, it’s flammable but worst still it melts so your clothes end up melting onto you if caught in a fire. That happened to a friend back in the 90’s her back, legs and arms were so badly damaged she was in critical care for over a year with so many skin grafts being done using the skin from the front of her legs and arms.
No it’s time for the world to turn back the clock and start using natural fibers for clothing.

[vintagelady]

Surely one of Britain's Living History museums would be interested in acquiring your business, repairing machines, learning the skills, exhibiting them to the public, & meanwhile making a product to sell. While there may be ways to streamline & modernize the process & to preserve the tools (scan & computerize the punch cards), one of those places should be ideal for preserving the skills of the early days. I hope you find someplace with an interest & that the gentleman who does the punch cards can find someone who is so fascinated with the rocess that a little dirt isn't a deterrent. I for one, do adore lace & I have miles of it (OK, maybe yards?), old & new, handmade & machine. If I were rich, I should love to be buried in a lace shroud with lace shawls given to all the mourners---now THAT would be a party!

[katehenry]

While there are about 100 professionals employed in this company, there are a growing number of hand lacemakers. Lace is not dead, it is changing ground. It takes narly an hour per square inch for handmade bobbin lace...more for needlelaces. I found the passion of thread in the 70s, learned by translating and just doing. I've taught over 100 to make it, some still "playing lace" . Once its in your fingers, it never really leaves. Book by Kellogg shows Collette age 14 working with 1000 bobbins. Its taken 50 years to find them all, but now I can make the lace in the picture on her pillow. That pleases me immensely. My daughter and grand daughter and grand son are makers now too. ))) Little kids can do it )))) so can you. )))

[floreanchannel]

what makes me sad is that this is still machine work, this is so easy compared to the handmade things we already lost, can you imagine what we are losing here? we already lost handmade patterns and now we are losing machine patterns ...