What is it about the French language that so prettifies
commonplace notions? Devoré fabric refers to velvets that have
been dissolved to create transparent patterns. In French, this
literally means ‘devoured’. More prosaically, in English this
fabric is sometimes referred to as ‘burnout’, which conjures up
some rather horrid images. The process was first created in
Europe in the 1920s, and requires velvet that has a blend of
cellulose fibre – viscose, cotton, rayon – and a protein-based
fibre such as silk. A chemical gel is applied in the desired
pattern to the fabric, and the cellulose is dissolved away to
leave behind the silk, which appears as a semi-transparent
gauze, and thereby creating the pattern. Devoré was popular
during the 1920s unsurprisingly, as it was then invented, and
the dresses of the time were so much more inventive with the use
of this innovative fabric than the ubiquitous scarves and
fringed kimonos of today.