Beading and braiding for the fashion industry

As lacemaking and straw plaiting declined in Chilterns villages, some women took up an alternative craft – making decorative trimmings or panels for hats or clothing.

‘Fancy-work’, as it was often known, included several sewing and embroidery techniques, but it seems that the work most often taken up in the Chilterns was braiding, lace-beading, beaded net-work, rouleau (piping) and by the early 20^th century, tambour beading.

Piece of black beaded net-work, possibly made after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901. Stuart King Collection

Mrs Lou Dean from Holmer Green, tambour beading, c 1960s. Stuart King Collection

Although the numbers of women doing it were nowhere near the thousands who made lace or plaited straw in the 19^th century, it is likely that the hand skills passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter and the proximity of the London fashion trade, gave rise to many women choosing this trade, working either from home or in small workshops.

Some entrepreneurial women became agents, liaising between homeworkers and the fashion houses in London.  Others supervised small village beading workshops.