Knitted Silk and Silver: Those Mysterious Jackets

Deborah Pulliam

This paper introduces some new observations and speculations about the knitted silk and metallic jackets that survive in surprising numbers in European and North American collections. Little is known about them: they do not appear in period graphics, and have been attributed to both men’s and women’s wardrobes, depending on who is making the identification. They have been identified as the product of knitting frames and of early knitting machines, as well as handknitting. They are frequently attributed to Italian craftsmen.

Having carefully examined over a dozen of these jackets, I would argue they were handknit, generally garments for women, not men, and despite their bright colors and flashing silver, that they were cheaply and quickly made by hand, probably in northern Europe. Although they were worn, repaired and sometimes reworked over a long period of time, I believe they were made for a relatively short period. In effect, they represent an early fad. The combination of materials, popular floral motifs (frequently used in more expensive embroidered goods) and cheap construction hints not at fashionable upper class goods, but middle market aspirations to fashion.

Despite the small numbers of artifacts, and relatively brief popularity, this form occupies an important place the development of knitting body garments, in the use of silk for a broad market, and early development of popular fashion: cheaper goods that ape expensive high fashion goods well beyond the pocketbook of the majority.

 

Deborah Pulliam is a freelance writer currently working on a master’s in history and material culture at the University of Maine at Orono, with a thesis topic of handknitting in New England, 1620 – 1850.