History of Lace and Embroidery
Early History
The history of lace and embroidery date back many centuries. The Sumerians, who resided in Mesopotamia (today’s Middle East), started using lace on garments in 4000 B.C. Embroidery was used in 1000 B.C. by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and the Hebrews, who used it for decorating their robes. The Moors also decorated much of their clothing with embroidery. They had a style of their own which spread to other countries like Spain and Sicily.
In the Middle Ages (from the 5th to the 15th century), embroidery was very productive. Rich traders and merchants were willing to pay a large sum of money for the luxury of embroidered clothing. It wasn’t until the Renaissance Period (1300 to 1600) that new applications for embroidery came about for tapestries, curtains, and bed covers.
During this period, lace had become an incredibly prestigious element of fashion, due to the impressive workmanship involved in its production. Months might be spent working on just a couple of inches of lace. It appealed to people in a sensual way due to its “peekaboo” quality.
It wasn’t until 1840 that lace was adorned on wedding dresses when Queen Victoria chose a lace-trimmed white gown for her wedding to Prince Albert of Germany. More than 100 workers were said to have spent six months producing handmade lace that was used on her veil and train.
The Path from Hand to Machine Embroidery
The first commercial embroidery company was started in New York in 1848 by Jacob Schiess who came from Switzerland. All the stitching was done by fifteen women who stitched the designs by hand. Around this time, Joshua Heilmann developed a hand embroidery machine, which revolutionized the embroidery industry. His invention was followed by the "shuttle embroidery" and the "chain stitch embroidery" methods.
Then in the 1860’s, Isaac Groebli from St. Gallen, Switzerland was inspired by work that was produced on sewing machines. By the1870’s there were fourteen companies who were manufacturing hand loom embroidery machines in Switzerland. The first American to import the mechanized machines from St. Gallen was Alphonse Kursheedt. The looms used multiple needles and were an unbelievable improvement over the age-old process of stitching by hand. They were, however, powered manually.
How Schiffli Got Its Name
Soon thereafter, Groebli invented the first practical Schiffli Embroidery machine. The machine was based on the principals introduced by the newly invented sewing machine. Groebli’s machine utilized the combination of a continuously threaded needle and shuttle containing a bobbin of thread. The shuttle itself looked like the hull of a sailboat. Thus, his machine came to be known as a schiffli machine. "Schiffli" in the Swiss dialect of the German language, means "little boat". Hence, in 1876, Kursheedt also imported several schiffli machines, thereby making him the real founder of the schiffli embroidery industry in the United States.
In 1903, Dr. Robert Reiner, founder of Robert Reiner, Inc., of Weehawken, New Jersey came to the United States from Germany. Realizing the potential of the embroidery industry, he persuaded the Vogtlandishe Machine Works of Plauen, Germany, to appoint him its American agent. Consequently, embroidery machines were imported into northern New Jersey’s Hudson and Bergen Counties. North Jersey was well suited to the industry because the 40,000-pound machines could be anchored into the solid bedrock of the Palisades to keep the needles from vibrating. Additionally, the area was especially fertile due to its great proximity to New York City's garment factories.
The industry grew until 1938, when suddenly the two sources for the manufacture of machines in Plauen, Germany, and Arbon, Switzerland, ceased operation because of World War II. No additional machines were produced until 1953, when Robert Reiner Inc. introduced the first American-made schiffli machine. It was then that Dr. Reiner made it possible for hundreds of Austrian, German, and Swiss immigrants in New Jersey to become manufacturers of embroidery.
The Rise and the Fall
In the 1970’s, North Jersey accounted for 90 percent of the domestic market for embroidery. The $300 million-a-year industry included 400 companies who employed more than 3,500 people. By the 1980’s, the number of companies declined to 70 percent. Although computers were introduced into the embroidery process in the 1990’s, the once-flourishing industry fell to overseas markets, and in 2000 it was nearly non-existent. There are, however, a few North Jersey businesses that continue to pump out the beautiful lace that Mindy Joy Designs uses.
In 2014, to commemorate the once-thriving embroidery industry that gave so much to so many, and they in return, Union City, NJ (affectionately called Onion City), named a portion of one of their streets “Embroidery Plaza”. A colorful sculpture called “Embroidery Tree” made from parts of an embroidery machine as well as a vintage Singer sewing machine, adorns a corner of the street.
If you should find yourself traveling on Interstate 495, on J.F. Kennedy Boulevard in Union City, make sure you look up to an overpass where you’ll find a sign that says, “Welcome to North New Jersey, Embroidery Capital of the World Since 1872.”
