Brocade Fabric
Brocade fabric is usually a decorative fabric that has been shuttle woven. Brocades are often made with silks of different colors along with some gold and silver threads too. Brocade fabric do not have to contain gold and/or silver threads in order to be considered brocades as some people think.
The origin of the name is from the Spanish word ‘brocado’ and from the Italian word ‘broccato’. In general terms, both refer to a sort of ‘embossed fabric or embossed cloth’. The embossed look of brocade comes from the way it is woven.
A special type of loom, called a draw loom is used to manufacture brocade fabric. The ornamental design found in brocades is from a special way of weaving the design (basically on top of the fabric) into the fabric. The design does not add to the structural strength of a brocade fabric. The design is woven to give the impression that it was embroidered onto the fabric.
The designs tend to stiffen the fabric and although they give the impression of embroidery, they don’t really look that much like true embroidery. Since the designs are basically on top of the under fabric, you can sometimes see the loose threads ends used to make the design, on the back side of the brocade fabric
Continuous brocade is when the weft thread, used in the design, is floating on the back and the weft threads run from edge to edge.
The opposite of a continuous brocade is a ‘Discontinuous brocade’. This type of fabric is made when the design threads are only woven into the patterned area and the treads do not go from edge to edge.
The looms used to make brocades, especially silk brocade fabric can be traced back to the 2nd century BC. The four shafted loom along with other Chinese innovations allowed the creation of silk brocades almost 4 thousand years ago.