What's the Deal With Chenille?

Before we get started, if you didn't read the title of today's post in a Jerry Seinfeld voice, please go back and do so now; I will wait..........Ok, now we can move on to today's topic--Chenille.

Blame it on the 90s, but I have been in love with all things Chenille ever since I saw all those silly robes on all those silly t.v. shows and movies, and since I've been talking about them a lot lately, I thought maybe we should really explore this subject thoroughly.  It wasn't just the 90s that made me love these robes, I'm convinced I would have loved them anytime because really it was the vintage vibes in bright colors and cheery designs of cowboys, coffee mugs, and peacocks that made me feel like I could just see some 1950s-1960s era housewife cooking breakfast with her hair in curlers donning a robe like that or straightening up a rumpled corner of a chenille bedspread and oh how I wished I could have a few pieces of that magical fabric so I could look like that too.

Chenille fabric is made by pulling soft fibers such as cotton into tufts and then cutting them short.  Tuft after tuft is created in long rows and so chenille is born.  The word chenille (boy you're going to read that word so much in this post that it's going to lose all meaning!) comes from the French word for caterpillar and is so named because those long fuzzy rows resemble the chubby grubs.  While it can be made in very tiny tufts and thin rows so that it's difficult to see without your reading glasses, in my world, the most well recognized type of chenille is in the form of those chunky tufted bathrobes and blankets that have rows as thick as icing piped onto a cheap wedding cake.

Advertisement for “Swirlaway” gingham and chenille robes

Originating sometime in the 18th century in Lyon, France, which was already renowned for its silk industry, it stands to reason that such skilled artisans in silk weaving would eventually get a little bored and start experimenting with new techniques, and so this remarkable new weaving technique was created.  It produced a luxe fabric that had the elites losing their minds.  Initially this fabric was used as decoration for tapestries and upholstery in their grand mansions and palaces, later transitioning to bedding and finally winding up on the backs of stylish ladies of the 1920s and onwards. 

Mrs. Ralph Haney wearing a candlewick kimono with a peacock design, ca. 1920. Via Ornament Magazine.

In the late 1930s America was experiencing the Great Depression and yet fashion always soldiers on.  It's in this time that we begin to see more chenille robes being featured in cinema and therefore being desired by the masses wanting to mimic the style of their favorite cinema starlets during Hollywood's Golden Age and perhaps also just reaching for comfort in a time of such uncertainty.

Carole Lombard and Jimmy Stewart in Made for Each Other, 1939

Whatever the case, these darling robes and bedspreads stuck around for decades, until styles changed as styles have a way of doing.  Things went in a totally different direction and quite suddenly during the 70s when fashions tended toward quilted looks, flannel, slinky nylon with matching nightgowns 

And of course the 1980s brought us that polyester color block robe that everybody's mom received in some unholy color trinity for at least one Christmas between 1980-1984.  My goodness......just look at them:

Fortunately you can't keep a good style down!  Classic fashion always comes back around and sometimes even better than before.  When they made a comeback they were better than ever.  Yes, these robes only got more creative over time until we see the pinnacle of their whimsy in a company called Canyon Group.  Most of the early chenille from this brand was 100% cotton and just like my own robe from this time, very heavy.  Modern chenille is usually a 50/50 blend of cotton and synthetic fabric which is lighter but often labeled as feeling cheap by those familiar with the original.

Chenille robes are still around (albeit less interesting in my opinion) but Canyon Group is evidently not as I can find no current website, distributors, or mentions of them on the internet past 2018.  I still have hope that that famous coffee robe will make a comeback but for the moment if you want chenille like this you've got to buy vintage and expect to pay an arm and a leg, but if you have the budget for it, there really is nothing quite like these lovely pieces of fashion history.

Sources:

Photos from: https://www.thelingerieaddict.com/2018/05/chenille-robe-history.html

https://nancysnotions.com/the-history-and-origins-of-chenille-textiles/

https://cottagedivine.com/canyon-chenille-history/