A fabric with a raised, quilted surface produced by a double-weave construction—a textile that appears to have been padded and stitched but is in fact woven in a single piece, an illusion of quilting achieved through the loom.
Matelassé is French for “padded” or “quilted,” and the fabric is designed to imitate the appearance of hand-quilting. It is produced by weaving two layers of fabric simultaneously, with a third set of threads that connects them in a pattern that creates raised, padded areas. The result is a fabric with relief—with topography—whose surface appears to have been worked by hand.
The technique originated in the nineteenth century as an imitation of Marseilles counterpanes, elaborate hand-quilted bed covers. The looms of Lyon perfected the weave, and matelassé became a popular fabric for dresses, jackets, and evening wear in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In contemporary fashion, matelassé is associated most strongly with Chanel, which uses a matelassé fabric for its iconic handbags and jackets. The Chanel matelassé, with its distinctive diamond quilting, has become one of the most recognized textile patterns in fashion. Matelassé remains a fabric of texture and depth, a woven surface that rewards the touch as well as the eye.
