From Saintly to Subversive: How Lace Went From Aristocratic Armor to Everyday Attitude
Dress Codes & Lace: From Sacred Ornament to Sheer Statement
Lace has slipped from the guarded wardrobes of European aristocrats into street style, red carpets, and wedding aisles, carrying centuries of symbolism with every delicate thread. By looking at how museums, designers, and everyday wearers reinterpret lace—from saintly veils to sheer party dresses—we can see how a once-exclusive fabric became a global language of status, sexuality, and self-expression.
CNN’s feature “Dress Codes: From saintly to sexy, why we wear lace” taps into this cultural evolution by tracing lace from museum archives to modern runways, including a quiet, climate-controlled room at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art where fragile pieces are preserved like rare books. The story is less about a single trend and more about what lace reveals about power, gender, technology, and taste.
From Courtly Luxury to Cultural Code: A Brief History of Lace
Historically, lace was less about romance and more about rank. Emerging in Europe between the late 15th and early 16th centuries, it required so much time and skill to produce that it became a shorthand for power. Kings, clergy, and the ultra-wealthy wrapped themselves in yards of it because they could.
- Aristocratic origin: Handmade needle and bobbin lace were painstakingly produced in centers like Venice, Flanders, and later France.
- Sumptuary laws: Governments actually tried to regulate lace consumption, worried that money was flowing out to foreign lace-makers.
- Sacred dimension: The Catholic Church embraced lace for vestments and altar cloths, tying the fabric to spiritual authority.
CNN’s piece underlines how the Met’s archive treats lace like fine art, which is apt: early lace wasn’t “trim” so much as wearable architecture, framing faces and bodies in elaborate halos of thread.
“Originally developed for aristocracy, the fabric has evolved over centuries to become widely available. But not all lace is equal.”
When Machines Met Thread: Democratizing (and Diluting) Lace
The Industrial Revolution crashed the lace party. Once machines could simulate the look of intricate handwork, the fabric jumped from aristocratic portraits to middle‑class wardrobes. But the CNN article is careful about a key distinction: machine lace is not just “cheap” lace, it’s a different cultural object.
- Handmade lace: Slow, expensive, and often tied to regional identities—think Venetian needle lace or Chantilly.
- Machine‑made lace: Mass‑produced using raschel or Leavers looms, accessible and infinitely repeatable.
- Modern synthetics: Nylon and polyester opened the door to stretchy, durable, and lingerie‑friendly designs.
This technological shift also changed lace’s symbolism. Once workers could afford lace‑trimmed garments, the fabric stopped acting purely as a class signifier and became a broader fantasy of refinement and romance—weddings, christenings, special occasions.
Saintly vs. Sexy: Lace and the Politics of Visibility
CNN’s framing—“from saintly to sexy”—captures how lace is constantly negotiating what gets revealed and what stays hidden. The fabric is literally made of holes, so its meaning depends on what those holes are covering.
- Saintly: Lace veils, mantillas, and religious garments obscure the body, suggesting modesty and spiritual elevation.
- Romantic: Bridal veils and delicate blouses use lace as a symbol of purity and idealized femininity.
- Provocative: Sheer lace dresses and lingerie flip that symbolism, playing with exposure and control of the gaze.
The article threads through this tension by pointing out how designers and stylists rely on lace to signal mood without saying a word. A high‑neck Victorian‑style lace top and a body‑skimming lace catsuit are both “lace,” but they’re speaking totally different languages.
Lace is about “negotiating the line between modesty and exposure,” as many fashion historians note—less about how much skin shows and more about who controls that decision.
Inside the Met’s Windowless Room: Lace as Archive, Not Just Accessory
One of the strongest images in CNN’s coverage is that windowless room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where fragile lace is stored away from light and dust. It’s a reminder that fashion history is often preserved out of sight, even as the trends it inspired circulate widely on Instagram and red carpets.
In this context, lace becomes a historical document:
- Craft record: Each pattern maps the skills and tools of a particular era and region.
- Economic trace: The presence of certain laces signals trade routes, colonial economies, and luxury markets.
- Gendered labor: Much lacework was done by women, often anonymously, raising questions about whose artistry gets credited and conserved.
By spotlighting the Met’s research spaces, CNN nudges viewers to see lace as part of a broader conversation about museums, preservation, and whose bodies and clothes are considered “worthy” of institutional care.
Lace in Today’s Dress Codes: Streetwear, Red Carpets, and Runways
Contemporary fashion treats lace as a stylistic Swiss Army knife. CNN’s piece gestures toward this versatility, and you can see it everywhere from Met Gala looks to TikTok “soft girl” aesthetics.
- Streetwear hybrids: Lace layered over hoodies or paired with sneakers complicates ideas of “delicate” vs. “tough.”
- Gender‑fluid styling: Lace shirts and trims in menswear collections challenge the old equation of lace = fragile femininity.
- Red carpet drama: Strategic lace panels let stylists play with transparency while technically staying within event dress codes.
In this sense, lace has become a tool for negotiating institutional rules—office dress codes, school formals, even church ceremonies—without fully surrendering personal style.
Not All Lace Is Equal: Class, Craft, and Sustainability
CNN’s article rightly points out that “not all lace is equal,” but the hierarchy isn’t just about hand vs. machine. It’s also about whose labor is visible, how long garments last, and what happens after a trend cycle ends.
- Craft inequality: Handmade lace can sustain specialist communities, but it can also be used as a marketing story to justify extreme markups.
- Fast fashion issues: Cheap synthetic lace in disposable garments raises concerns about microplastics and landfill buildup.
- Care and longevity: High‑quality lace, even if machine‑made, can last decades with proper care, complicating a simple “artisan good / synthetic bad” divide.
A deeper critique might have dug further into these sustainability and labor questions, but the piece succeeds in at least inviting readers to look closer—literally—at how their lace is made.
Related Viewing, Reading, and Cultural Touchpoints
If CNN’s “Dress Codes” episode on lace has you rethinking your closet, there’s a rich media ecosystem that expands the conversation around fashion history and textile culture.
- Museum collections: Explore the Met’s online lace holdings for high‑resolution images and object histories.
- On‑screen fashion: Series like The House of Eliott and films such as Phantom Thread dive into couture, textiles, and the politics of dress.
- Fashion podcasts: Episodes of Dressed: The History of Fashion often touch on lace, underwear, and the shifting meanings of “modest” vs. “revealing.”
For a visual deep dive, many museum and fashion‑history YouTube channels offer close‑up walkthroughs of historical garments, making it easier to appreciate lace as engineering as much as ornament.
Verdict: A Thoughtful Thread Through Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy
CNN’s “Dress Codes: From saintly to sexy, why we wear lace” is a nuanced, accessible tour through one of fashion’s most symbolically overloaded materials. By moving between the Met’s dark storage rooms, historical context, and contemporary style, it shows how lace operates as both fabric and metaphor—linking class, gender, religion, and desire without drowning viewers in jargon.
The piece could delve deeper into sustainability, labor conditions, and global production chains, but as an introduction it does what good fashion journalism should: it makes you look again at something familiar and realize it has a history, a politics, and a personality.
Rating: 4.5/5 – elegant, insightful, and rich with cultural context.
As dress codes continue to loosen and tighten in different spaces—from offices to streaming‑era red carpets—lace will keep evolving with them. The next time you see a lace collar on a politician, a sheer panel on a pop star, or a veil at a family wedding, you’ll know you’re not just looking at decoration. You’re looking at centuries of argued‑over rules, stitched into something light enough to float.
