Sophie Hallette
he world held its breath as Kate Middleton stepped from the royal Rolls Royce on her wedding day, ending months of anticipation as to what this major trendsetter and probable future queen would be wearing. But in a small village tucked away in a corner of northern France, the anticipation took on a whole new meaning. “We were watching like everyone else and when we saw the lace a cheer went up through the factory,” says Maud Lescroart, marketing director for Sophie Hallette, a family-owned lacemaking company based in Caudry for over 125 years. Although Kate’s dress was designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, a loyal client, secrecy was such that even the principles of the firm had no idea their lace would be the centrepiece of the royal wedding day. “We didn’t even know if she would wear lace,” says Lescroart. “Of course, it took a couple of hours to be 100 per cent sure it was ours, but we sensed it was immediately.” Sophie Hallette is one of the oldest and most prominent of the eight Caudry lacemakers still working on the traditional Leavers looms that were smuggled here from Nottingham, England, piece-by-piece in the early 19th century. Still being tweaked to accommodate changing times and trends, these magnificent looms replicate, almost to perfection, the delicate handmade lace that was once among France’s most prized and expensive commodities.
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“Until the reign of Louis XIV, lacemaking was a cottage industry”
A major event for the company, to be sure, but for the owners of Sophie Hallette, the credit goes to the loom operators, designers, dyers and other skilled artisans, many in their fourth or fifth generation with the company. “Most of all we were proud and happy to have the recognition of these talented people who put so much into creating the lace,” says Lescroart. “It is one of France’s metiers d’art, and they are the skilled hands that make it possible. Kate is only the most recent force to rock the ever-shifting ground of lacemaking. The whims of fashion and vagaries of politics have always dictated the fluctuating fortunes of France’s lacemakers.”
AN AGE-OLD TRADITION
Although the mention of lace dates back to Homer, it didn’t emerge in Europe as a fashion staple until the end of the 15th century. In France, lace came into style in the mid-16th century, thanks to Paris’s first great trendsetter, Catherine de Medici, the Queen of France from 1547-1559. Lacemaking originated in Venice and in Flanders, although they were initially of two different styles: Italian needle (point de Venise) and Flanders bobbin. France was a latecomer to the increasingly lucrative business. Until the reign of King Louis XIV, lacemaking
Clockwise from opposite:
Sophie Hallette still produce 40 new designs each year; half of Sophie Hallette’s designs feature embellishments, such as Swarovski crystals; the company’s marketing director, Maud Lescroart; young designers are now using point de France lace in exciting new ways
BEHIND THE BRANDS
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