FLAX – ONE OF MAN'S ETERNAL COMPANIONS
From Stone Age Utility Items to Modern Luxury Fabrics: Linen's Journey Through History
Even during the Stone Age, people in Europe were able to prepare flax, although most of it seems to have been used for useful things such as rope, fishing nets and the like. Fashion was not that developed at that time. The tablecloth, not to mention the napkin, had hardly come to mind. In ancient Egypt, people began to dress in beautiful and cool linen clothes. Linen was the only permitted material in the priestly robes and mummies were wrapped in fine linen bandages, many of which are still preserved. From Egypt, the knowledge spread to Babylon, which in ancient times was the center of the "linen industry", via Greece to the Roman Empire and further up across Europe. In the Roman Empire, there were large flax spinning mills in, among others, Ravenna and Vienne that were under the careful control of the "procuratores linificiorum", which says something about the importance attached to the material. In Sweden, we have been able to prepare flax at least since the Bronze Age.
Well into the 16th century, linewas spun on a loom, a handy tool that you can still see oriental women mastering with virtuosity. Around 1530, the spinning wheel came along and further accelerated linen production. Linen processing was a craft for a long time. When machines arrived at the end of the 18th century, so did line's worst competitor - cotton. Better machines came along, which were also suitable for the linen industry. In 1805, Joseph Marie Jacquard designed his epoch-making machine for pattern weaving, which, among other things, gave the old, fine damask weaving new possibilities.
Linehas faced tough competition from simpler and cheaper materials and more than once it has been thought that it would disappear completely. Line's quality and aesthetic value have finally overcome all the "new fads", including the synthetic fibers of recent years. Now lineseems to be entering a new era of glory - in a world on the way back to quality and beautiful things. Linen is an unsurpassed material - in skilled professional hands.
About linen products
Line's long fibers are well suited for weaving and its use can be traced back nine thousand years. In the 18th century, there were several famous Swedish damask weavers and the blue-flowering flax fields lay breathtakingly beautiful in the countryside. Gradually, cotton took over as the most common textile fiber and the labor-intensive linefell into the shadows. Today, flax is no longer grown in the Nordic countries, except on a limited scale, but linen fabrics are experiencing a renaissance. Environmental awareness has gained a strong foothold and more and more people value the tradition and the unique properties of line.
Full linen consists of only linen yarn, which has many good properties. The linen fiber has extreme strength and absorbency. The fabric is quick-drying and dirt-repellent. If you spill liquid on the fabric, it is absorbed immediately. Towels made of full linen are excellent in the kitchen for drying glass and giving silver and crystal a beautiful shine. Linen also feels nice and cool against the skin.
