[Music] Le is still the capital of weaving and it's certainly still the capital of silk because Leon has inherited a very long tradition and some remarkable expertise the silks trade in yor today is the living Heritage of four centuries of creativity and development it's only here that you find this potential because this sow doesn't exist anywhere else the history of Leon is still wrapped up and woven around its precious fabrics for more than 10 years it's hosted the silk Market in the city former Stock Exchange once a year manufacturers and buyers meet among the colorful
cloths ever since the saliva of the silk worm was first discovered in China this precious thread has been spun during the Renaissance period King francea the first wanted France to outshine Italy and decided to make Leon the capital of the silk industry Leon three elements came together which explained the city's extremely remarkable production the first was this desire for France to be a place of silk production so it was above all a political desire at the offset the second element was the presence in Leon of a community who appreciated Fine Art and who quickly understood
the importance of design and the third element was the presence of a major scientific Community which meant that Leon was able to revolutionize the loom several times over that history is still alive today on the slopes of the city's quaro area in this historic neighborhood of the canuts or the silk Weavers maon prel is the last family run manufacturer since 1752 prel has been specializing in upholstery Fabrics a dozen or so mechanized machines weave up to 50 m of cloth every day under the watchful eye of the company's expert Artisans but upstairs in the studio
time has almost Stood Still 12 handlooms make it possible to recreate or refurbish historical artifacts in 1801 the so-called jackard Loom revolutionized the weaving of silk in making it partly [Music] mechanized he's working on a jakar loom which first appeared at the start of the 19th century this one here probably dates back from around 1875 1880 these looms are complex they're old and slow but no other machine is capable of weaving such complicated Fabrics when you marry the jakar Lum with the experience of a skilled Weaver you're able to make Fabrics that are impossible to
make mechanically so that's why the most beautiful velvets and brocades like here are made by hand because we don't know how to make them in any other way I'm going to push the bar down to bring all the threads up and then each thread is passed through a stitch and the Stitch is operated by the jackard mechanism it's a machine that requires lots of precision and it might sound paradoxical but it also requires lots of physical effort on a velvet you can lift up to 80 kilos and this bar are lifted 2,500 times a day
so 2,500 times 80 kilos Sebastian is meticulously recreating the cloth for an armchair that once belonged to Maran toinette that's today owned by by the Metropolitan Museum in New York it will take him almost 3 years in total to finish I weave between 3 and 1/2 and 5 cm a day we don't have any motor at all it's really us that are the motors there are only seven silk Weavers left in Leon who still use hand looms and Nicola is the youngest of them all it's important for me to be part of the preservation of
this knowhow which is at risk of disappearing and it's a shame to be in Le to say to oneself that there will be no more silk Weavers one day when there were thousands just a few decades ago when you arrive here in the morning it's not everyone who has the chance of working in such an atmosphere as this is where time has stood still it's fair to say that when you weave all day you mentally Escape I often think of the origins of the orders for who these Fabrics were first made and where they are
today the history of the prel we has carefully been recorded in these log books since the 19th century this is the entry for an order placed in 1874 by sh G the designer of the Opera House in Paris this is our history in I'd almost say part of France's history and for us it's a fabulous help for our business because when we found them we had all the details of the measurements we were able to recreate interior decorations and we were able to be completely in keeping with what was done back then Fair po the
company also keeps some of its Treasures under lock and key like this tester made in 1977 for the re-upholstery of Louis the 14th's bedroom at Vera Louis the 14th really made a mark on his era it was a really exceptional piece of cloth which represents 23 years of non-stop weaving either we were the Sun King or we weren't [Music]
