Decorative Packaging

     The manufacturing of cloth ribbon is a distinct and specialized division of the textile industries. Ribbon-weaving is known to have been established near St. Etienne (dep. Loire) as early as the 11th century, and that town has remained the headquarters of the industry.  Crefeld is the centre of the German ribbon industry, the manufacture of black velvet ribbon being there a specialty.

     A ribbon loom uses the tandem weaving of two or more webs [up to 40 in modern looms].  References to a loom which had several narrow webs woven at one time date back to the end of the 16th Century. Sometime around 1676, the ‘Dutch loom’ or ’engine loom’ was brought to London.