Souleiado: A Ray of Sunlight in Print

The roots of these patterns stretch far beyond Provence. Ochre, faded indigo, dusty saffron, star-shaped flowers printed in steady repeats, Portuguese ships brought the first brilliantly dyed cottons from India into Europe In the 16th century, The name itself means “a break in the clouds where the sun shines through,” and that image fits, not only the palette but the spirit, cloth that shimmered with carmine reds, deep indigos and floral repeats unlike anything woven at home. These textiles, known as indiennes, captivated the continent. By the 17th century, they were arriving at the port of Marseille and spreading inland, especially across the sunlit towns of the south.

Light, washable, vivid, they quickly found their way into Provençal wardrobes. Though their import was later banned to protect local industries, the love of pattern had already taken hold. Workshops began printing their own versions, blending Indian rhythm with regional symbolism: olives, stars, pomegranates, small clustered blooms. These weren’t just imitations, they were acts of translation.

By the 18th century, Tarascon had become a centre of fabric production. And in the 19th and 20th centuries, Souleiado would rise from this same soil, not as a newcomer but as a continuation. Under the care of Charles Demery, the company revived these traditional prints using original blocks, ancient techniques, and a deep respect for the quiet story of cloth.

Under the care of Charles Demery, the company revived these traditional prints using original blocks, ancient techniques, and a deep respect for the quiet story of cloth. While Charles Demery worked to preserve the history of Provençal textile printing, it was his wife, Yvette Demery, who helped give Souleiado its distinct visual poetry. A designer and stylist in her own right, she curated collections that blended historical motifs with a modern, wearable elegance. In the 1950s and '60s, Yvette developed garment lines using Souleiado prints that celebrated Provençal heritage while feeling entirely contemporary, flowing skirts, blouses, and dresses that brought traditional patterns into everyday life. Her vision helped establish Souleiado not just as a fabric maker, but as a lifestyle brand rooted in memory, sunshine and movement. Many of the silhouettes she shaped became iconic, and her influence can still be felt in Souleiado’s collections today.

And the mood? Always sunlit Souleiado prints became known for their antidote-like joy , a brightness that felt almost medicinal. Sunshine yellows, lavender blues, olive greens. Each shade drawn not from trend, but from terroir. The land itself.

Look closely and you'll find stylised poppies, cicadas, olive branches, even calissons, those almond-shaped sweets of Provence, nestled into the repeat. These were more than decorative. They were cultural shorthand, regional memory rendered in cloth.

To wear them was to carry a little of the south, its warmth, its rhythm, its unabashed colour — whether wrapped as a scarf, stitched into a skirt, or pinned up behind a child’s bed.

When I unroll a bolt of vintage Souleiado, I see all of it, the Indian ports, the Portuguese ships, the French fields, the women who wore them, the homes that softened them over time.

Les Travaux de la Manufacture – Art, Industry & the Story Behind the Cloth

Les Travaux de la Manufacture – Art, Industry & the Story Behind the Cloth

In 1783, the French artist Jean-Baptiste Huet designed a textile unlike any other — not for fashion, not for furniture, but to celebrate the quiet heroism of craft. His design, Les Travaux de la Manufacture, tells the story of an entire industry in repeat: a visual ode to the processes, people, and pride behind fabric itself.

✧ The Print as a Portrait of a Place

This remarkable piece was printed at the Oberkampf factory in Jouy-en-Josas — the birthplace of toile de Jouy. At the time, Oberkampf had just been awarded the title Manufacture Royale, and Huet, a Rococo painter turned textile visionary, was tasked with creating a work that would embody the factory's values and elevate its status.

What he produced was more than a pattern — it was a portrait. Fourteen meticulously drawn scenes unfold across the cloth, showing every stage of textile production: sketching, dyeing, engraving, printing, washing, drying, folding, and pressing.

It is the Enlightenment in fabric form — rational, ordered, deeply admiring of skill.

✧ A Celebration of the Worker

Unlike many decorative designs of the 18th century, Huet’s composition centres the people behind the process. Men, women, and even children are shown at work — each with a role in the story of making. You see hands dipped in dye, eyes scanning colour, backs bent in careful labour.

But there’s a quieter commentary, too. While women were essential in textile production, they were often paid half the wages of their male counterparts. Huet’s fabric, perhaps unwittingly, records this imbalance by showing their labour alongside the men’s — equally diligent, equally necessary.

✧ Art Meets Industry

Huet’s design is a masterclass in copperplate printing — a technique that allowed for incredibly fine, detailed illustrations on cloth. Inspired by Indian chintz and improved by European innovation, the method created smooth, story-rich surfaces far beyond the capabilities of block printing.

Oberkampf’s artisans were pioneers of this technique, and Les Travaux stands as a tribute not only to their work, but to the very idea that textile manufacturing could be beautiful.

✧ Where to See It Today

Fragments and full panels of Les Travaux de la Manufacture live on in collections around the world:

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY)

• The Art Institute of Chicago

• The Victoria & Albert Museum (London)

• St. Louis Art Museum

Each one offers a different colourway or cloth base — some in cotton, some in linen — all echoing the same reverence for the workshop as a place of art.

✧ Why It Still Matters

For collectors, designers, and textile lovers, Les Travaux is more than historical décor. It’s a reminder that every scrap of fabric has a story. That the things we drape, stitch, or fold into drawers were once touched by many hands — and that those hands shaped not just objects, but culture.

It’s the kind of cloth that reminds us: the most beautiful things are often made slowly, in community, with care.

Curious to see how this design continues to inspire? Follow our Styling Notes or explore our archive of vintage French textiles here and here. You never know what thread will pull you in

At the Edge

Every fabric tells a story but it’s the edges that speak the loudest. Selvedges - those woven margins that run along the sides of fabric - are more than just functional. They’re timestamps, typefaces, colour codes and tiny clues to where a fabric began its life. You might find a brand name, a designer’s credit, or a row of perfect little dots marking the colours used in the print.

These edges are quiet but powerful, sometimes with an expected name and sometimes with an unexpected name. They tell you who made the cloth, when and where it might have been printed, and sometimes even whisper a pattern name. This gallery is a celebration of those margins - the overlooked but essential borders that frame each vintage textile. Woven or printed, crisp, or frayed, each selvedge in this collection holds the start (and sometimes the soul) of a fabric’s story.