Designer Spotlight: Solstiss

A piece of the Royal wedding is in LA! Thanks to French lace maker, Solstiss, who contributed to Kate Middleton's wedding gown, has a showroom in the LA Fashion District's California Market Center. Based in Paris, Solstiss is a renown French company that has produced lace fabrics since the 1800s and is now known as the "official partner" of royal weddings. I sat down with the representatives in the LA showroom and found out that this fairy tale opportunity actually originated 55 years ago.

Solstiss's first royal dressing was for Grace Kelly. For her wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, designer Helen Rose chose to use Solstiss's best-selling, classic lace design for the dress.

Since then, the dress has been cited as one of the most elegant and best-remembered bridal gowns of all time, and one of the most famous since the mid 20th century. So, when it came for Kate Middleton to chose her dress, she thought of Grace Kelly. As a result, Alexander McQueen (i.e. Sarah Burton), who has been a long time client of Solstiss, immediately thought of using the same lace used for the Princess of Monaco's dress for the Duchess of Cambridge's.

Kate's dress was made with ivory and white satin gazar. The skirt echoed an opening flower, with white satin gazar arches and pleats. The train was close to 6 feet long. The lace appliqué for the bodice and skirt both incorporated hand-cut English lace and French Chantilly lace. For the bodice, individual flowers were hand-cut from 2,000 lace patterns, including Solstiss's design, and hand-engineered onto ivory silk tulle to create a unique and organic design, which incorporated the rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock.

A close-up of the design

Solstiss's lace designs are truly made through an intricate and artistic process. "This opportunity has been a great recognition for the lace industry and for those in France because they really are artists who are accomplished and highly-trained," said Bernard. 

Christophe Machu, Chairman & President of Solstiss

The lace is made on the leavers machine, a machine invented by French mechanic, Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1804. This machine manipulates all the holes of the perforated cards of the machine to correspond to a type of speck and color of thread which elaborately weaves one after the other, giving birth to incredible designed farbic. Moreover, once the lace comes out of the machine, it is hand-finished by French artisans. These artists meticulously inspect and repair any flaws, a process that can take up to at least 6 weeks, depending on the design and quantity. Luckily, Solstiss has stock pieces of lace already made, so clients can easily just receive it right away. Solstiss can also create custom colors, as they have a variety of 6,000 original drawings available and 30,000 colors available. For Kate's dress, the lace and color was already in their collection.


The pattern used for Kate Middleton's and Grace Kelly's wedding gowns

Solstiss actually didn't know they were dressing for the royal wedding until two weeks before the wedding. "Solstiss did a rush delivery, 15 days [before the wedding] to the Alexander McQueen studio, precisely 25 meters of lace...it was a treasure secret until the ceremony," said Jane Burge, Account Executive.

The secretive aspect of the job is something Solstiss is used to. They design lace for the best fashion houses in the world such as Christian Dior and Dolce & Gabbana. They've even dressed for Vogue's Anna Wintour.

"As for every Haute Couture or Ready to Wear show it is a last minute surprise. You never know in advance...this is the magic of our business," Christophe Machu, Solstiss President stated in a press release.

Here are just two of the many examples of lace designs Solstiss has done for luxury fashion houses.

Christian Dior

Dolce & Gabbana

Solstiss is now and forever part of royal history and I hope that through it's LA showroom, Los Angeles will be remembered as well.

Solstiss
110 E. 9th Street, Suite B703
Los Angeles, CA 90079
213-688-9797