Written on January 27, 2010 by Jaima Brown

All about Toiles

Toile, is a French word meaning “linen cloth” or “canvas” and has been in the English lanquage since the 16th Century. It does have many meanings but I want to discuss Toile de Jouy, which originated in France around the late 1700′s. Of course, in the French lanquage it literally means “cloth from Jouy-en-Josas”, a town in northern France. In this town, there was a factory owned by a famous french textile entrepreneur Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf who was known for producing beautiful linen cloths known as “Toile de Jouy”.

Toile’s were pen and ink drawings printed on a white or off white canvas usually depicting pastoral scenes, couples picnicking by the lake or of floral bouquets.

Oberkampf was famous for printing monochromatic Toiles in red, blue or black on a cream background. Royalty, such as Marie Antoinette helped popularize Toiles in society. She loved Toile images of the French countryside reflecting daily life ,work and leisure as well as hunting scenes. It was around 1783 when King Louis XVI proclaimed that the factory in Toile de Josas was to be the official manufacturer of Toiles for royal families. Once royalty popularized Toiles, the craze filtered down to all levels of society.

Independence Day from Parasol Collection 7766-556

Toile designs have been around for years but started to become popular around the year 2000. Toile fabric was mainly used for interior decoration but by the 1970′s Toile was starting to be used in apparel and more into other home decor products. Today, a wide range of products from fashion to home accessories can be found with Toile designs.

Toile is a fabulously versatile design style that is often designed into living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, powder rooms and even children decor; it is classic and timeless.

Kentucky from Retreat Collection