In Cambrai, the “beautiful adventure” of the revival of chambray
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When he landed at the community of communes of Cambrai proposing to relaunch a textile activity around chambray, we looked at him with round eyes – but it didn’t last long. It must be said that Pascal Denizart, director of the European Center for Innovative Textiles (CETI), had more than one stitch in his pocket.
This engineer who passed through the French Institute of Textiles and Clothing carried out, in 2013, a project to relaunch French jeans and reorganize a sector ranging from fabric production to clothing. “It was probably too early but, while digging into the idea, I came across chambray a bit by chance”a fabric whose trace can be found in Cambrai, in the North, from the time of Henri IV, at the turn of the XVIIe century, he explains.
Under the First Empire (1804-1814), production intensified. First in the cellars of houses, because flax fiber needs humidity not to break, then in factories at the beginning of the 19th century.e century. This fabric is popular for its lightness, it is pleasant to wear in hot weather. In the town hall of Cambrai, a painting representing the inventor of the small shuttle for looms and chambray adorns the walls of the wedding hall, but until Pascal Denizart arrived with his idea, no one knew of who it was.
Iconic
In the 19the century, Americans arrived in Cambrai. They are looking for a fine and resistant fabric to make summer shirts, lighter than denim ones. Chambray crosses the Atlantic, becomes the “cambric” and, for its manufacture, cotton imported from Africa replaces flax. “Historically, it was a quality fabric signifying a social status, says Pascal Denizart, the Americans have made it a work garment. » David Bowie, in his first album, in 1967, signs a title where he evokes this fabric which will mark the collective imagination in the United States: “You will wear a cambric shirt, my son, when you are a man. » Steve McQueen in The Gunboat of the Yang-Tse (1966), Paul Newman in cold hand luke (1967), Johnny Cash who came to support prisoners at San Quentin Penitentiary wore cambric shirts and their photos became iconic.
While preparing for the organization of CETI’s tenth anniversary, Pascal Denizart offers his teams the opportunity to work on the production of a new chambray yarn. It is made of African organic cotton, recycled cotton and linen fiber, as at the very origin for this fiber. It was then that he left for Cambrai to try to sell his idea. Gérard Laurent, vice-president of economic development and innovation, remembers it very well. Here, we are more used to highlighting the famous local sweets (the Bêtises de Cambrai) or the andouillette. Inevitably, this story of fabric captures the attention, especially since the territory remembers its textile past and seeks ways to reindustrialize “on circular economy projects. It is also an opportunity for us to associate an agricultural sector in crisis which can find new outlets”confides the chosen one.
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