March 10, 2021
Ticking: mattress canvas
From our grandparents' beds to our city-dwelling feet, Coutil is far from having said its last word. Historical fabric appreciated for its solidity and its timeless look, it spans the ages and is constantly reinvented by creators and designers.
Coutil is a canvas of hemp, linen, cotton, sometimes wool, crossed and tightly woven. It is traditionally used for making mattresses or box springs. For this, it is often treated to improve its hygiene and safety properties. These may include anti-bacterial, anti-mite and even anti-fire treatments. Coutil is therefore made to be one of the most resistant fabrics. This is why it has often been used in areas other than bedding, such as making tents, tablecloths or work clothes.
Ticking has no originally defined pattern. It can be plain or floral but it is indisputable that the most famous pattern is that of the gray and ecru bayadère stripes. The striped version is the one commonly called mattress canvas, it is really the most emblematic and the one that we naturally associate with Coutil. This canvas is among the most emblematic and essential in upholstery. If its solidity made its first hours of glory, its aesthetic also made it very appreciated.
Ticking is one of these historic fabrics that has been manufactured for centuries, long before the industrialization of textile production. Although it is no longer used so much today for the manufacture of our mattresses and box springs, striped ticking is essential in decoration and upholstery. Table linen, bed linen, curtains, cushions, designers and decorators never seem to tire of the stripes or the resistance of this canvas. It is therefore still published by several factories, notably French.
But at Le Lissier, it is the downgraded, abandoned fabrics that interest us. Our Ticking is an old Ticking, made of cotton, recovered from mattresses found in an attic in Aveyron. It was his raw authenticity that immediately made us love him. Its old-fashioned appearance acts like a Proust madeleine and immediately takes us back to a vacation home with our grandparents, where striped mattresses accumulate... it inevitably brings back a memory and evokes comfort and reassurance. Add to this its technical qualities and Coutil is the perfect fabric for our Le Lissier Slip-ons .
After centuries of existence, Coutil reinvents itself and adapts to new technical and hygienic requirements in the field of bedding. The quality of the original fabric and the general attachment to its traditional pattern mean that old ticking, mattress canvas, is still part of our daily lives in many ways. He still needed to put our shoes on, Le Lissier took care of that.
