Soleiado is a French brand heir from Manufactures Jourdan (via Manufactures Veran) created in 1806.
While it is now a prêt a porter brand, it was originally producing bloc printed fabrics and was the very last french “indienneur” or maker of “Indiennes”: printed cotton fabrics “inspired by” the exquisite craftmaship of Indian block printing, so I thought the visit to the Soleiado museum was very fitting after my Ajrakh printing course (see post here)
The history of French Indiennes is quite rock and roll, I thought you might enjoy it:
Brightly coloured floral patterned and easy to maintain cotton fabric (a centuries old exquisite Indian craftsmanship) is imported from India via Marseille (from mid 17th century), quickly becomes popular in the street, then gets adopted by Mme de Seguret, becomes an aristocratic fashion rage which menaces to bankrupt French linen, wool and silk industry.
Late 17th c., Louis XIV bans the import of the incriminated fabrics in a “France first” move.
Marseille, never shy of provoking Paris, start producing it locally. Clumsily first, then very finely.
The king gets upset and tightens the ban on french produced indiennes, but the manufactures move to Avignon (not french at the time). For economic reasons, the king then allows Marseille to import and produce the thought after fabrics, but not for the french market.
A lot of smuggling via none other than Aix en Provence’s nobility, and a literal revolt by people fed up of being fined for wearing cool fabrics later, the tyrannic king (sorry pleonasm) caves in and brings down the ban on 1759.
The moral of the story is that a choice of consumption can be a form of resistance, just saying 😉 !
They start creating local patterns and new colour associations, a truly local production. At that time, some of it goes up to the North of France where labour is cheaper, to Jouy, you can see me coming: that’s where the story of toile de Jouy starts, maybe some other museum visit later😉.
Manufactures Jourdan was created in the hight of the “indiennes” fabrics, in 1806.
In Provence, people adopt the fabric widely, but by late 19th c. Indiennes fall out of favour and manufactures close one after the other.
Late 19th c., Monsieur Veran was a fabric trader worried about supply: he bought the manufacture. Not only did he keep it going, but he also bought the wooden block prints of other bankrupt manufactures, thereby expanding the number of patterns in his catalogue.
Many changes of ownership later, the manufacture started actually produce clothing with their fabric and Soleiado was born in the 50’s. It was a rage in the 50’s, the 70’s, and the 80’s with many celebs of the time adopting the brand.
When I learned that they actually have a museum set where the original Manufacture Jourdan was, a visit was mandatory. The steps, materials and techniques are really familiar to our natural dyes community, so that was very moving visit that I am happy to share here.
