Aesthetic moments, anyone?

Maurice Sapiro  Saatchi Gallery

It's that moment when you forget the rest, when nothing else seems to matter but a 

certain intensity of feeling. You can't count these by dozens in your life but the very strength of the emotion makes these rare experiences memorable. I'm sure what triggers it is very personal and maybe related to a receptive state of mind.

Have you had at least one of these? With nature, art, music?

I remember having it happen as a young girl riding over a bridge at sunset. Unfortunately, that sounds trite and very picture postcard, but I still remember the wonder of the sun's low-slung light glowing on the metal structure and the way our car was becoming part of the blaze. 

I didn't say a word, not a whisper, 

there in the back seat.

photo: Le style et la matière 

It happened again at an exhibit I was enjoying but where I had in no way expected 

to stumble on something to make me feel like time stood still.

photo: Le style et la matière 

 But there it was, ready to spring from a gown I didn't really like -

photo: Le style et la matière 

 the delicacy of the flowers woven into the glowing orange satin made my heart sing. 

Obviously, no picture could reproduce the sensation.

Worth gown of historicizing style 

mutton sleeves and neo 17th century lace collar

for Mrs Franklin Gordon Dexter 1895

(collection Musée des arts décoratifs)

La Reine des Fleurs: from bedroom to ballroom and onward

photo St Tyl

La Reine des Fleurs woven document from 1895 Tassinari et Chatel.
There is something classic and modern about the unusual design disposition of this
beautiful brocade on a ground of cannetillé. 

Cannetillé is a weave that is similar to cannelé or a more sophisticated reps with horizontal ribs that have been worked into little pavés or alternating squares or lozenges. (My own black and cream design used on the sides of this blog shows a close up of a modern cannetillé technique.) The pattern is still hand woven today in 100% silk for those privileged enough to acquire it. The brocading technique requires very attentive weaving wrong side up; mirrors are installed underneath the loom to survey the progress on the right-side.

photo Marc Walter
from La Soie en Occident by Jacques Anquetil

The same looping garlands of roses in a different coloration are found
in this ball gown by Worth taken from a truly marvelous book with sublime photography. The book is entitled Silk in English. Worth used plainer fabrics such as taffeta and satin earlier in his career but used pronounced, large-scale designs such as this toward the end of the 19th century.

( You may recognize some of Marc Walter's more recent photography in 
Un Certain Goût Pour L'orient / Exotic Taste: Orientalist Interiors and 
Versailles just out this month) 

photo Versailles

In the apartments of the Duchesse du Barry at Versailles, we see the brocade draped
à la reine and with coordinated passementrie.

photo Anthony Denney

This seems to be a 1950s interior with a 18th century bed à la Polonaise and comfortable armchairs 

decoration by Antoinette Bernstein.

photo: Delprat

 Here, several fabric designs served as inspiration for this spectacular rug designed by Patrick Norguet  made by Tai Ping in 2010. In the foreground, La Reine des Fleurs which blends into other florals from the Tassinari archives, Courson, Compiègne, Choisy. More on this rug project here.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth...
Keats

La Reine des Fleurs is still produced on special order at Tassinari & Chatel.