The lady, just pleasant, enthusiastically reported to the Lady, pleasant in all respects, about fashionable trends among the secular nobility: frills are no longer worn, now - festoons, everywhere festoons - both below, and on the sleeves, and on the drape ... What is this the detail turned out to be in trend with the heroines of the poem “Dead Souls” by N. V. Gogol?
Elegant element
If you saw a strip of carved pattern with protrusions in the frame of a woman’s dress or in the fringing of the curtains, know that these are festoons. However, this is not only the name for exquisite finishes on clothing. The term refers to painting, architecture and applied art. Considering the wondrous beauty of a building with bizarre ornaments and stucco moldings in the form of garlands tied with ribbons, we don’t think that these are festoons, a decorative architectural element that arose in ancient times.
Origin
The Latin word festo means "festive garland", from it in Italian came the token festone, and in French - feston. Both words call the decoration in the form of interwoven and ribbon-bound plant elements - stems, leaves, flowers and fruits. So in ancient Rome, the altars of temples and houses were decorated during the holidays. In the Russian lexicon, the noun “feston” is borrowed by transliteration, when the word sounds exactly like its overseas twin.
Holiday mood
The facade of the Grand Tsarskoye Selo Palace in Pushkin was richly decorated with columns, pilasters and festoons during the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Intricate and luxurious this design can be seen there today. In neoclassical buildings, festoons decorated the interior decoration of the premises. Often this element is used in ornamental painting in the edging of paintings or other objects of art.
Festoons have always been a recognized ornament of gold and silver, clay and glass works of applied art. Tooths or waves in the design of lampshades and chandeliers in retro style are popular to this day. The decoration of the edge with scallops gives the products a special charm, causing pleasant aesthetic experiences and recalling the holiday, because such a meaning was originally laid down in the name of the decorative accessory.
In sewing
Perhaps the most “native” sphere of festivals is tailoring art. On the lips of a seamstress, it designates an airy finish of a product as one of the ways to process its edge instead of a primitive hem. Festoons adorn the edges of collars and cuffs, make out the bottom and sleeves, use them as a decorative element on fasteners, wraps and other details of clothing. A scalloped strip of downward-facing patterns can be made in a wide variety of configurations and shapes: flowers, geometric shapes, oriental ornaments, arabesques, baroque vignettes and many other fantasy motifs.
In old times
Historians claim that festoons in a noble costume became an indispensable attribute of heraldic apparel around the end of the 13th century. A century later, they were already actively exploited by ordinary people in their dress.
In olden times, two methods for making festoons were known. The first, cheap, is cutting teeth and protrusions along the edge of a dense fabric that does not crumble and therefore does not require processing, for example, felted wool. The second method, more costly, is processed festoons, the edges of which are either sewn with small stitches or hemmed with a contrasting lining.
Time rushes forward, but it has no power over other things. What are festoons in the design of modern dresses, in the design of banquet rooms, living rooms and bedrooms in the antique style, if not a tribute to the classics and good taste?