Siamoise
{{Short description|A term for various woven fabrics primarily made with cotton and linen.}}
File:Woman in dress made of Siamoise material 1687.jpg
Siamoise is a term for various woven fabric varieties, usually cotton and linen blends,{{Cite book|last=Crowston|first=Clare Haru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUwfakfdMHwC&q=Siamoise+cloth&pg=PA375|title=Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675–1791|date=2001-12-07|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-8306-2|pages=375|language=en}} with patterns such as checks and stripes. Siamoise was so named because it imitated clothing worn by 17th century Siamese ambassadors.{{Cite book|last=Montgomery|first=Florence M.|url=http://archive.org/details/textilesinameric00mont|title=Textiles in America 1650-1870 : a dictionary based on original documents, prints and paintings, commercial records, American merchants' papers, shopkeepers' advertisements, and pattern books with original swatches of cloth|date=1984|publisher=New York; London : Norton|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-393-01703-8|pages=347}}
History
At first, Siamoise was made with silk in warp and cotton filling yarn. The fabric resembled the clothing of the Siamese (Thai) ambassadors who visited King Louis XIV in 1684 and 1686. That is why the name 'Siamoise' was given to it.{{Cite book|last=Miquelon|first=Dale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ts7A5F6m49wC&q=Siamoise+is+named+after+a+Siamese+trader+who+brought+these+materials+into+France+in+the+middle+of+the+17th+century.&pg=PA15|title=Dugard of Rouen: French Trade to Canada and the West Indies, 1729-1770|date=1978|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-0299-4|pages=15|language=en}}
Modifications
Initially, the fabric was a combination of silk and cotton, and the silk warp weakened the material. Replacing the silk with linen produced a stronger fabric that was highly successful.
Further additions
Since then, Siamoise has undergone many additions such as linen and cotton patterns, varied stripes, and checks and blends of different fibers such as silk and wool.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gM5dAAAAIAAJ&q=Siamoise+cloth|title=Ciba Review|date=1939|publisher=Ciba Limited.|pages=1124|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Association|first=American Historical|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XRgM9_VwI0C&q=Siamoise+cloth|title=Annual Report of the American Historical Association|date=1994|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=35|language=en}}
Influences
{{further|Orientalism in early modern France}}
The Siamese Embassy to France in 1686 had brought to the Court samples of multicolor Thai Ikat textiles. These were enthusiastically adopted by the French nobility to become Toiles flammées or Siamoises de Rouen, often with checkered blue-and-white designs. After the French Revolution and its dislike for foreign luxury, the textiles were named "Toiles des Charentes" or cottons of Provence.McCabe, Ina Baghdiantz (2008) Orientalism in Early Modern France, {{ISBN|978-1-84520-374-0}}, Berg Publishing, Oxford, p.222-223