The History of Solstiss House
Given its fine appearance, so delicate, so precious, almost divine, in fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that Calais-Caudry lace was handcrafted by lacemakers using their legendary meticulous eye for detail. No-one would imagine that such delicacy and refinement could be produced by the Leavers weaving loom, named after its inventor and imported to France from England in 1879.
Consisting of a series of bearings, mechanisms and manometers, the machine produces metre after metre of elegant, quintessential, complex lace of unrivalled finesse at a slow but steady pace.
Lace manufacturer Solstiss was founded in 1974, nearly a century after Leavers lace was first created, following the union of five renowned lacemakers (Ledieu Beauvillain, Henri and Victor Machu, Robert Belot and Edouard Beauvillain) who decided to pool their expertise and share this with the world.