Bizarre Silk Textile

Silk brocades produced in western Europe between 1690-1720  ended up being the most exotic of European woven fabrics ever. Their name, bizarre , was coined only at the beginning of the 20th century.

Unidentifiable forms mixed with oriental, architectural and geometrical motifs, overlaid on top of each other in asymmetrical scheme, bizarre silks were the dominant style of the wealthy and titled French, Italian and English. Starting around 1720, when pleats became popular, bizarre silks fell out of favor. As they were so expensive, they were not discarded but instead donated to the church where the garments were taken apart and spliced into ecclesiastic garments, altar frontal, and other religious textiles. That is how bizarre textiles survived.