The chances are that you have a favorite period drama or movie, and the heroine wears beautiful, perfectly crumply vintage dresses, set in gorgeous period houses, full of beautiful old books, perfectly crackled pottery and brooding dark haired love interests. Those beautiful dresses are probably linen and there’s good reason for that.
Linen has been around for a long time - wayyyyy before Jane Austin made it screen worthy.
It dates back some 38,000 years ago, some clever-brained peeps discovered linen textile fragments preserved in a cave, somewhere in the depths of the Caucasus mountains (a tricky place to access, sort of near to Russia, located between Asia and Europe).
Since then it’s featured prominently throughout history, loved by the Egyptians and used as currency, popular with the forward thinking Romans, then spreading to Europe - perfect in the hot Mediterranean climate, before going Global - the colder areas welcomed linen as an insulator to wear under woolen garments in winter. Medically, its been prominent in hospitals for bandages, bedsheets, gowns - it’s naturally antibacterial, breathable and good for sensitive skin.
Enamored? Intrigued? Obsessed? Here are our top reasons to invest in at least one piece of linen clothing:
Beautiful, Comfortable, Breathable
Not only can you be a historical heroine in your timeless linen dress, but it is HANDS DOWN the most practical fabric to have on your body in all climates. Linen has a hollow structure that allows it to wick away moisture, while also circulating air around your body, keeping you cool during hot days. That same hollow structure of the linen also works in the winter to keep you warm, making it the perfect insulator to layer with a sweater or jacket.
Sensitive skin or allergies? Linen is the textile for you, it’s renowned for being hypo-allergenic.
Earth friendliest textile EVER
Now more than ever, wearing textiles that aren’t harmful to our planet or our bodies is important. Linen is the eco-friendliest. The flax plant (what linen is made from ) is a soil beneficial crop, the roots add nitrogen to the soil its grown in.
Flax is naturally insect repellent, so it requires little pesticides to produce. It needs little or no fertilizer. It’s a sustainable crop - 100% of the flax plant can be used to make linen, linseed oil, paper, animal feed, etc. Linen requires far less water than cotton to be produced, in some areas of Europe where its grown, the soil is wet enough to have no irrigation (one of the biggest drawbacks to producing cotton is the vast amount of water it requires to grown and produce.)
Linen is also biodegradable - it can naturally breakdown in the earth within a few months.
A Warrior of Textiles
Machine washable! Folks can be hesitant to treat linen as you do your t-shirts, but it’s a hardy beast! Machine wash in a warm or mild temp water & you can lightly machine dry it! (Try not to give it excess heat as it can damage the fibers.) Washing and wearing Linen softens it up - vintage linen dresses are highly sought after, because they’ve been washed, worn and beautifully softened making for a buttery velvet like feel.
Timeless in Style
Let’s be honest, Linen is the prettiest fabric. You can dress linen down, wear it over leggings or jeans with sneakers, or style it up with some strappy heels. Roll it up to pack in your suitcase, and it’s the perfect traveling outfit. Stained? Simply spot clean with a little dish soap, blot dry, and it’s ready to wear again within minutes. Our pure linen dresses can last decades, making it a treasured heirloom garment to pass down to future generations.