Where can I find this awesome fabric?

March 12, 2008 6:40 AM

I need to know if there is a particular word for this kind of brocade. I think it's a brocade.

Here is a terrible picture from my cellphone of a kimono made out of this fabric. It's blurry I know, but maybe you can get the idea - it's a black background and the pattern is picked out in gold thread. It looks like the pattern is done after how oranges look when they are cut in half, but very stylized.

Does any one know if this is a particular kind of brocade? Where I could find some? I've looked on eBay and I've googled but I think I am missing some sort of key word here - I'm just getting run of the mill brocade, not this awesome stuff. Thanks!

posted by Medieval Maven to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

Medallion brocade? It's really hard to see the photo. But from your description, I think that's what you're talking about. There is also Dragon Brocade that might be what you're looking for (I'm having a hard time finding a pic for a good link).
posted by dancinglamb at 6:58 AM on March 12, 2008

Response by poster: dancinglamb - it's like that but the "oranges" are all right up against each other. I made a sketch.
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:48 AM on March 12, 2008

...the key to what it is, is in the pattern. Could you take a pencil rub or scan it ect??

Any clues as to where it came from?

It must be my screen, but I can't make out thing! I don't know what to ask.. Is it satin or silk (and the lining)? Is there a metalic thread or is it just super glossy? Is it just two shades of yellow on black? And what kind of quality is it?

So it's just like the sketch? No foral bits ect?
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 10:33 AM on March 12, 2008

This is a little closer. Were you able to find out what country the kimono was from? I mean, I know traditionally, they're Japanese, but that may not be the case with the fabric (anybody can make a kimono, kwim?). If you can find out the country of origin, you might have better luck at least narrowing down what type of brocade to look for. (I was having closer luck finding similar stuff with Vietnamese brocade when looking for pictures instead of Chinese.) Good luck!
posted by dancinglamb at 12:28 PM on March 12, 2008

I think it's a brocade.

For all I can see in the photo, it could very well be a printed fabric embroidered with gold thread. From that blurry photo, no one else is going to be able to tell you this is a brocade if you are not sure after having seen the fabric in person.
posted by yohko at 1:47 PM on March 12, 2008

Response by poster: I saw the fabric in person; I would call it a brocade. For all I know, it's made by sherpas and they call it something else. It was very heavily threaded - the thread was gold, and it was exclusively the orangey bits, no floral. It was in a japanese style, and it was old - vintage - and the guy in the shop knew nothing about it. It was too short and damaged, which is the only reason I did not buy it.

Thanks for the help - vietnamese might narrow it down a bit. It was def not dragons or any such thing.
posted by Medieval Maven at 6:11 PM on March 12, 2008

Response by poster: For those of you playing at home - one of my other inquiries bore fruit, and it is, apparently, an embroidered/brocaded crest of a Japanese royal family - a ten or sixteen petal chrysanthemum . Not that I will necessarily ever be able to find such fabric but at least I know what it is.
posted by Medieval Maven at 3:41 AM on March 13, 2008