Traditional Embroidery

When I first started this company, one of my first purchases was the incredibly beautiful and informative book The Book of Fine Linen by Françoise de Bonneville. This is an incredible resource book with gorgeous photography and a complete history of linen through the ages. It is a large book worthy of any linen lover’s coffee table or library. I was especially intrigued because of its emphasis on 100% linen and all of the traditional styles of embroidery and needlework that have become almost a lost art. On the cover above you can see monogramming in bourbon embroidery, the classic satin stitch and seed stitching edged with broderi Anglaise and Renaissance lace. To me these are all masterpieces, and the women that made them - artists!

I have collected antique and vintage linens for years, and wanted to bring back this look in our best selling collection “Brussels”. My inspiration for our “universal monogram” came from the hundreds of real antique monograms that I researched for this classic look. I wanted to share a few of them with you. White embroidery on white linen has been the most common, but over the centuries, there have been other colors of embroidery thread and each had its own symbolic reason.

With that said, I am so pleased to announce that Papillon Linens will now be offering our “universal monogram” in any color! Now that we offer such a wide range of colors of linen, we can now customize to your own taste. We will continue to offer our “Brussels” collection with the 4” ruffle – with or without the embroidery, and will now add the option of embroidery to our more tailored “Ghent” collection. Imagine the possibilities, tone on tone, colors on white or colors on color – let your own tastes and creativity combine for a truly customized look. Stay tuned for examples of our new offering…