Original Sicilian Lace for Sale

Sicilian lace

The Sicilian lace enjoys a well-respected place in the tradition of my island. Rather, we can surely affirm that it is a pivotal piece of Sicilian culture and history, an iconic symbol of Sicily.

However, over the centuries, Sicilian lace has been replaced with other types of materials and fabrics coming from Africa and China. Surely, these materials are nice, but they will never have the quality and uniqueness of the lace from Sicily.

What you find nowadays is often African or Chinese lace disguised and marketed as Sicilian, but this trade is also a scam, besides to be a fraud.

Sell unoriginal lace as Sicilian is also a severe lack of respect for the Sicilian artisans who worked hard to craft pieces of breathtaking lace that are more similar to artworks.

Just to help you find original Sicilian and Italian lace to buy with no hassles and mistakes, I created this article with hints and information about where to buy the original Sicilian lace.

Before starting with the salesy part of this article, I want to remember the history of lace from Sicily.

Sicilian Lace. What Is It?

arabesque necklace

Sicilian lace is a light tissue or holed fabric crafted with particular motives recalling flowers and mosaics coming from the Arab tradition.

It is obtained by a yarn of cotton or linen which originally had only two colors: white and black.

These colors have a strong meaning in Sicily: white was the color of brides, while black was the color of funerals. Weddings and funerals have always had an important social impact in Sicily, these events were also the occasion to gather people and relatives who would never have had the opportunity to meet, otherwise.

Lace wedding dresses and lace black shawls for funerals were crafted by women skilled in crocheting. The Sicilian little girls were initiated to this art until their childhood.

It was just crocheting that allowed Sicilian women to earn a living during the emigration of their men to America.

Remained in Sicily, these women exhibited all of their artistic creativity to craft stunning dresses and artworks in lace.

Over time, Sicilian women have made more and more sophisticated lace creations, like dresses or sheets trimmed with golden and silver motives, called arabesque.

Arabesque costumes represent an iconic Sicilian tradition that is impossible to forget.

Today, unfortunately, crocheting is a lost art in Sicily and I looked for many months to find a few Sicilian artisans who still make and sell original Sicilian lace.

Sicilian Villages Where Lace Still Survives

Faggianislace

The Sicilian villages where crocheting is still practiced are Modica, Piana degli Albanesi, Marsala, Mazara del Vallo, Santa Ninfa, Sortino, Aragona, Santa Domenica Vittoria and not only.

In the province of Caltanissetta, such as Vallelunga and Pratamento, for example, crocheting is an art practiced by nuns, the so-called Suore Domeniche. They work the lace with the techniques of metal drumsticks and bobbins (fuselli and tombolo in Italian).

In the Sicilian language, instead, crocheting is called chiacchierinu.

In the village of Mirabella, in 1910, the noble Angelina Autieri founded the Opera of Tombolo, an association in charge of teaching handmade crocheting to preserve this important Sicilian art.

Even Dolce and Gabbana brought the Sicilian lace onto the international red carpet. Today, this iconic Sicily product is loved by tons of tourists and fashion lovers.

Many of them buy Sicilian lace when they visit the island, but if you don’t have the opportunity to visit it, you can buy Sicilian lace straight on this website. Follow the paragraphs below to perform the purchase.

Original Sicilian Lace Items to Buy Now

GgioiamiaCreazioni lace

The first items I want to suggest are stunning lace fans made by a true Sicilian craftswoman from Ragusa.

Her online shop is called GgioiamiaCreazioni and sells artisanal jewels and fans decorated with real Sicilian lace. This Sicilian shop also sells beautiful lace vests belonging to the most refined Sicilian fashion style.

The other Sicilian craftswoman is from Corleone. Her online shop is Asicula and sells Sicily coffa bags decorated with the traditional black and white Sicilian lace.

Asiculalacebag.jpg

I also want to suggest to you another Italian artisan who sells awesome lace items from Naples. The online shop is Faggianis and is regarded as a stellar seller of vintage Italian and Sicilian lace.

He is above all popular for his Rebrodè lace, a wonderful fabric with very evident motives, used for wedding dresses and the lace doily or runners that Sicilian grandmothers used to decorate their dinner table.

Similar to Rebrodè lace is Chantilly lace, but the latter comes from France. Hence, be careful to know this important difference.

Faggianis also sells marvelous curtains in ancient lace. These products are the perfect gift to enrich the wedding set of your daughter as happened in the timeless Sicilian tradition. Just think that these items are made with the most precious Italian lace.

Browsing the pages of this online shop, you’ll also find crocheted tablemats and many other lace decorations for your home.

Another Italian shop, called Happyland87, deserving a mention, is the one by Laura Cattaneo. She is from Milan and makes jewels decorated with colorful lace recalling the Sicilian tradition.

laceshawl

And, at last, to buy lace clothing and shawls, I suggest that you visit the online shop of a craftswoman from Spain. Her name is Mireia and she creates shawls and wedding dresses in boho lace.

Her creations are made with the classic colors of the original Sicilian lace, namely white, black, gold, ivory, champagne and pink. You can select your favorite color and sizes during the purchase.

Mireia also makes customized lace shawls. The quality of her products is very high.

For this reason, I added her to this list.

Conclusion

I searched for other sources about the original Sicilian lace to buy, but I found only shops from China, UK and Ukraine. These shops use Rebrodè lace and cotton fiber, but I am not sure about the quality of their products. For this reason, I avoided mentioning them in this list.

I want only to remind you that when you buy original Sicilian lace, you help Sicilian an Italian artisans maintain alive an ancient tradition that requires hard work and a lot of patience.

Photocredits:

Featured image of Sicily: Rosario Scollo

Product images: the artisans mentioned in the article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.