Lace identification guide and illustrations, and I – Lambskin

Wow, sitting with this 1939 fashion dictionary still blows my mind. I knew there were a lot of different kinds of lace out there, but this book really goes out of its way to illustrate and describe some truly obscure types. It feels like flipping through a little time capsule of textile terminology. My hope in sharing these scans and notes is that they’ll make modern lace identification a little easier—especially if you’re into vintage clothing, old linens, or random bits of antique lace and ephemera that turn up in estates and attic boxes.

This post comes from The Language of Fashion (1939), a fashion dictionary that devotes a surprisingly generous amount of space to lace. Even in the late 1930s, many of these laces were already considered traditional or old-fashioned, so the book is looking back as much as it is describing what was current. That makes it especially helpful today for identifying lace on garments and accessories that date from the Victorian, Edwardian, and early 20th‑century eras.

Why a 1939 Lace Dictionary Still Matters for Vintage Lovers

When you’re sorting through vintage clothing or old trims, the vocabulary can be confusing: labels and old ads might casually throw around terms like “Brussels,” “Venetian,” or “Renaissance lace.” A modern reference book often focuses on broader categories or just a handful of common types, but this 1939 fashion dictionary goes deep into the weeds.

Because it was compiled at a time when people still recognized and used many of these specialty laces, the definitions feel very down‑to‑earth—more “everyday fashion language” than academic textile textbook. That makes it a great bridge between what we see on surviving garments and the language that was actually used when those pieces were worn.

I originally scanned and shared these pages to help other people who, like me, stumble across mysterious old lace and think, “Okay, but what kind of lace is this?” If you sell vintage, sew with antique trims, collect old clothing, or just enjoy historical fashion, having a period dictionary like this makes identifying lace types much more approachable.

Lace Identification: Types Listed in the 1939 Fashion Dictionary

Here are the lace types that this particular entry illustrates and defines. Many of them are still talked about, and others are delightfully obscure—exactly the sort of thing that shows up on a vintage dress label or in an old pattern description and sends you down a research rabbit hole:

• Alencon
• Antwerp Pot Lace
• Battenberg lace
• Blonde lace
• Bohemian lace
• Breton Lace
• Machine Made Buratto Lace
• Brussels Lace
• Arabian Lace
• Bruges Lace
• Crochet lace
• Fiber Lace
• Egyptian Lace
• Chantilly Lace
• Filet Lace
• Guipure Carrickmacross Lace (seriously—who has heard of this one before seeing it in an old book?)
• Duchesse Lace
• Maltese Lace
• Limerick Lace
• Mechlin Lace
• Medici Lace
• Hairpin lace
• Lille Lace
• Rose Point Lace
• Point de Paris Lace
• Renaissance Lace
• Plauen lace
• Machine Made Point’d’Esprit
• Venetian Lace
• Shadow lace

And yes—believe it or not—there are even more varieties mentioned and illustrated beyond this list. The fashion dictionary doesn’t just drop the names; it shows how they look and offers brief descriptions. When you line up your mystery lace next to these illustrations, the patterns, densities, and overall “feel” start to make more sense.

If you’re looking at this as a tool for how to identify vintage lace, this list is your jumping‑off point. The idea is to scan through the illustrations, compare the structure and motifs with the lace in your hand, and then narrow down what you might be dealing with.

Lace in Historical Fashion: A Bit of Context

One of the things that makes these 1939 lace pages so fascinating is where they sit in the broader timeline of fashion. Lace had been a major status symbol and decorative element for centuries, and by the late 19th and early 20th centuries it showed up on practically everything:

• Infant’s blankets and baby clothesctorian era saw patterns and instructions for lace-making and crochet in magazines and home journals, often focused on trims for clothing, baby items, and household pieces.
• The Edwardian era took lace and ran with it—lace dresses, lace blouses, lace underwear, lace doilies—if you could put lace on it, they probably did.
• By the 1910s–1930s, many of these traditional laces were still worn, reused, or imitated, and people still recognized the names enough to use them in pattern instructions, fashion copy, and dictionaries like this one.

The related scans and projects connected to this lace guide fit into that same historical arc. They show how lace making and lace wearing stayed part of everyday fashion and home sewing across several decades.

Related Vintage Lace & Crochet Material From the Same Collection

This lace dictionary entry doesn’t sit alone—it’s part of a larger set of old scans and vintage projects that all orbit around lace and fancy needlework. Here’s how it connects to some of the other material:

Venetian Design Crochet Patterns – July 1913 Modern Priscilla

The Edwardians were absolutely notorious (in the best way) for their love of lace: dresses, shirts, blouses, underwear, doilies—lace details were everywhere. The 1913 Modern Priscilla crochet patterns focus on “Venetian design” looks you could make at home, echoing the fancier laces shown in the 1939 dictionary.

Seeing those patterns side‑by‑side with the lace dictionary illustrations gives you a sense of how everyday home crafters translated high‑style lace into crochet versions for their own wardrobes and homes.

Victorian Crochet, Knit, and Lace Making Patterns – Early 1890s

Another set of scans comes from early 1890s Delineator magazines. These focus heavily on lace making patterns and crochet designs, including:

• Detailed lace trims
• Crochet “fascinators” (head coverings)
• Infant’s blankets and baby clothes
• Other little knitted and crocheted details that finished off Victorian outfits

These patterns show how the love of lace wasn’t just about buying fancy imported pieces—it was also rooted in home craft, pattern-following, and making your own trimmings. By the time you get to 1939’s lace dictionary, you’re seeing the names and visual standards that generations of home sewers and knitters were aiming for.

Edwardian Lace Dress on Model Anita

There’s also an Edwardian lace dress modeled by Anita that really brings all of this to life. She was petite enough to wear the original dress without a corset, so you can see how all that lace sits and moves on a real body.

The dress is full of tiny details: layered lace motifs, delicate patterning, and that unmistakable Edwardian love of texture. When you compare a garment like that to the dictionary’s illustrations, you can start to spot which types of lace might have been used—or at least what the dressmaker was trying to imitate or evoke.

Using This Guide for Modern Lace Identification

If you’re here because you’re knee‑deep in vintage and want to identify the lace on a dress, blouse, tablecloth, or random trim, this 1939 dictionary guide is meant to be a practical helper, not just eye candy. Here are some ways you might use it:

1. Match the overall structure
   Look at the way the lace is built in the illustrations—net grounds, heavier motifs, openwork, or fine mesh—and compare that with what you see in person.
2. Compare the visual “weight”
   Some laces are delicate and airy, others are bold and solid. Even without memorizing all the technical jargon, those differences are easy to spot once you have several types lined up.
3. Notice recurring names on vintage labels
   If a vintage tag or old pattern calls something “Brussels,” “Venetian,” or “Renaissance lace,” you can cross‑reference those names with the dictionary pages to get a closer visual idea of what they meant.
4. Use the related historical scans as contextIt feels like flipping through a little time capsule of textile terminology. My hope in sharing these scans and notes is that they’ll make modern lace identification a little easier—especially if you’re into vintage clothing, old linens, or random bits of antique lace and ephemera that turn up in estates and attic boxes.
   ctorian and Edwardian crochet and lace materials help you see what was being made at home, what patterns were popular, and how people were using lace in real life. All of that context makes the dictionary’s terms feel more concrete.