One hundred twenty years ago, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in northern France employed thousands of people at hundreds of lace mills. Today, there’s only about ten lace manufacturers in the area still making the world-renowned Leavers lace, tasked with supplying all the top fashion houses around the world.

Royal houses use these legendary laces, too. Maxima wore Calais Caudry laces on her wedding veil and gown when she married into the House of Orange in the Netherlands. Kate wore Calais Caudry laces when she married into the House of Windsor in the UK.

History of Leavers Lace

Only Leavers lace produced in Calais and Caudry can use the prestigious label name, Dentelle de Calais Caudry. Keeping up with demand is not easy, but Calais Caudry doesn’t cut corners, and even guarantees its lace.

“It guarantees that this rare and precious fabric is made on Leavers looms, according to an original and unique method of thread intertwining derived from a 200-year-old tradition. The label allows people to differentiate between lace produced in Calais and Caudry and knitted mesh lace which is much more widespread.”

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What’s so special about Leavers lace?

In the early 1800’s, mechanical looms were considered new technology that produced beautiful laces with a handmade look. Within a few years, the looms were improved upon by John Leavers, allowing for more intricate patterns and designs to be produced, all copying the beloved handmade lace. Thus, Leavers lace was born. No machine since has been able to supersede its quality.

“With its unrivaled technology, the Leavers loom is the only machine capable of perfectly imitating the agile hands of manual lace makers due to a complex system of knotting between the warp and the weft threads.”

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Haute Couture Defined

Haute couture wedding gowns are commissioned from scratch, under collaboration with the client and the designer, using the finest materials and hand sewing techniques. The precision and care that goes into haute couture garments is remarkable. There actually are requirements to haute couture. A designer’s products have to qualify every year under stringent rules at La Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.

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Faith is the Senior Fashion Writer and Editor for legendary weddings at LLTM. Hire her to enchant your readers and get them talking!

It takes over 1,000 hours of labor to hand make an evening gown or wedding gown with hand-embellished beading or embroidery. The fit is extraordinary. The feel is glorious. The look is unmistakable. The price is jaw-dropping. Haute couture wedding gowns start at $100,000. To those who can afford it, we salute you. The rest of us need another option.

Let’s Hear it for Independent Designers!

This is where independent designers, like me, come in handy. We have access to the same haute couture materials and use the same sewing techniques, but we don’t charge the haute couture prices. We enjoy bringing you affordable luxury.

The same rare, luxurious, Calais Caudry laces used by fashion houses and royal houses alike, are made available to you in the Grace Kelly wedding headpiece by Long Live The Marriage. In the headpiece, the lace is hand-embellished with genuine pearls. The wreath is made of mother of pearl orange blossoms and glass bead leaves. Approximately 30 hours of detailed work goes into the hand made piece. Each one is a work of art, and never mass produced.