An eighteenth-century hobby, fashionable among women at the French court in the 1760s and 1770s, of unraveling gold and silver braid, lace or epaulets rather than making anything new. Participants gathered the precious metal thread in small pouches and later sold it to a goldsmith to be melted into bullion, and demand grew strong enough that merchants began manufacturing ornate goods purely to be taken apart this way; the same pastime was known in Britain by the colloquial name "drizzling."
Facts
Established When (Circa) OriginParfilage was a fashionable pastime among women at Versailles in the 1760s and 1770s that grew so popular that ornaments were made and sold solely to be unmade for their precious metal thread; Grimm's Correspondance littéraire described a furor for it in winter 1773, and in Britain the practice was known as drizzling. 1 Connections
Associated With
Parfilage, the historical practice of unpicking gold and silver thread for reuse, was performed on embroidered and lace textiles.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Parfilage - Wikipedia
Description section
unraveling gold and silver braid, lace, or epaulets
Lead paragraph
a fashionable pastime among women at the Versailles in the 1760s and 1770s
History section, popularity description
ornaments were made and sold solely for the purpose of being unmade
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