After record levels of industrial production in the 19th century, the arrival of imported materials and the advent of synthetics started to compete with linen and even threated to make it disappear. This threat was accentuated by changing consumer habits, before a linen made a welcome comeback in the second half of the 20th century.
The 20th century was probably the century during which there was the greatest diversification of materials and styles in fashion. During this period linen experienced a rapid decline, before beginning a revival in the 1970s, which has continued right up to the present day.
The First World War, the Great Depression of the 1930s and, above all, the Second World War had a lasting impact on linen production and its use in fashion. During this time cotton, which was less expensive and easy to use in industrialised production, became linen's direct competitor, and even overtook it as the prevalent form of fabric.
However, it was above all synthetic fibres, with the rise of nylon, polyester, acrylic and elastane, that put linen in the shade after 1945. The development of the consumer society led people to change clothing more frequently. The advent of ready-to-wear clothing in the 1960s, and a shift towards less dressy, more comfortable and easy-to-maintain clothing habits and fashions, led to a move away from natural or historic fibres such as wool, silk or linen.
Nonetheless, linen was still used for household linen, or for very specific uses. For example, it was used in summer clothing, where its thermoregulatory properties were greatly appreciated.
However, it was not until the 1970s that there was a noticeable, renewed interest in natural materials. At that time, linen was popular with Japanese designers at Kenzo, and Italian designers at Giorgio Armani and Gianfranco Ferré, among others.
But it was in the 1980s that there was a real turning point. Technical innovations made it possible to produce increasingly fine, soft and resistant linen, suited to the demands of contemporary fashion.
Since designers were looking to work with new materials and to differentiate themselves from others, they rediscovered the unique qualities of linen. Fashion designers such as Marithé and François Girbaud, Adeline André, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and, above all, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, were won over by its versatility and creative depth.
Linen could be dyed, printed, de-structured or deliberately creased, but it also lent itself to a sense of purity, elegance and that eternal quality of luxury.
In the 1990s, linen was carried by an even stronger wave, with the influence of avant-garde fashion. This trend was driven by a new generation of designers from Northern Europe and Japan.
Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs and Martin Margiela, followed by Olivier Theyskens, Véronique Branquinho and Raf Simons, or Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons... They all sought to break away from the framework of the previous decade.
They also wanted to stand out with their own specific identity, in the face of the emerging giants of luxury and fast fashion. Their fashion designs, which were more minimalist and "deconstructivist", found a genuine creative response in natural materials such as linen.
The desire for a more transparent and responsible fashion industry rapidly added momentum to the creative revival of linen during the last decades of the 20th century. In response to these new needs, linen has now established itself as a textile fibre of the future.
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