Le Jacquard Français – The Weavers
Le Jacquard Français is a French manufacturer of home textiles with a long tradition. In 1861, the weaver Benjamin Baer settled in the small town of Gérardmer, located directly on the shore of Lac de Gérardmer in the wooded region of the Vosges, and considered the cradle of France's textile industry. Initially, Monsieur Baer traded fabrics woven by farmers at home. His successors, Nathan and Elie Lévy, continued the business and expanded it in 1928 with a bleachery, specializing in white linens made of cotton, linen, and half-linen. In 1968, Europe Linge Service acquired the company and 54 state-of-the-art Jacquard looms. From 1974, the ELIS group named the brand Le Jacquard Français.
Jacquard is a weaving technique developed in France in 1805 by the silk weaver Joseph-Marie Jacquard, which enables the weaving of large, usually complex patterns. The specially developed loom with punch card technology, which allowed each individual warp thread to be raised or lowered and thus automatically controlled, revolutionized the possibilities of the textile industry and still provides us with fabrics with magnificent patterns today.
Le Jacquard Français – French Textile Design
Le Jacquard Français achieved its absolute breakthrough and great popularity through its collaboration with the famous designer Primrose Bordier in 1978. With great imagination, she designed unprecedented motifs and patterns that almost resemble paintings, with wonderfully coordinated colors, and banished the previously dominant white color from bedding, towels, tablecloths, and dishtowels. A breath of fresh air swept through the home textile sector. Le Jacquard Français became an icon of French textile design.
