Decoding Damask: Patterns with a Past

June 13, 2024

Damask fabric, that eternally elegant symbol of luxury with a rich past, brings history home quite literally. The woven, reversible patterned fabric is made by occasionally reversing the action of the warp and weft threads to create intricate designs fit for royalty (and your home decor!) Find out why the global love affair with damask fabric’s high-quality finish stretches from the Silk Road to today’s homes, here.

What’s the history of damask fabric?

When we say the damask fabric weaving technique is quite old, that’s an understatement. It emerged as one of the five basic techniques from the early Middle Ages, Byzantine, and Middle East weaving centers dating back to the 5th century, and was named after Damascus, a major Silk Road trading location. Scholars think that the Chinese adopted the technique as early as the 600s during the Tang dynasty. Hard to find after the 9th century outside of Islamic Spain, damask fabric experienced a bit of a revival in the 13th century.

Trade logs beginning in the early 17th century show ongoing silk trade, including damasks, between the British East India Company and China. Notes indicate damask was made of the heaviest Chinese silks. The word “Damask” wasn’t seen in Western Europe until mid-1300s records in France; shortly thereafter, Italians started weaving damasks on draw looms. In the 19th century, a French inventor patented the Jacquard loom based on earlier French designs, which made damask production faster and less expensive. Today damasks are woven on computerized versions of Jacquard’s loom, marrying the ancient art with modern technology.

How is damask fabric made?

Originally woven in silk, later in satin, linen, wool, and synthetics, damasks fall into four types: true, single, compound, and twill. True damask is made only of silk yarns, single damask comes in two colors due to only one set of warps and wefts, compound damask can be more colorful as it has more than one set of warps and wefts, and twill damask involve a twill woven ground or pattern.

From the 1300s to the 1500s, damasks were mostly one color with a glossy warp satin pattern on a duller weft base. Light hitting the fruit, fauna, and floral patterns creates a beautiful sheen depending on the location of the viewer. Later on they were made with multiple colors and even metallic threads. Today damasks span the spectrum from monochromatic to multicolor and everything in between!