Ajour

French term meaning “in the daylight” used to describe open-work embroidery because it lets light pass through. Mostly seen on linen or as hemstitches on sheets, tablecloths and towels, it is used as a decoration on dresses, skirts and blouses. It is made by first removing some threads from the fabric’s warp (the more threads removed, the higher the hemstitch). Then the weft threads are combined in small bunches using a slipknot thread to create an open-work hem. It is possible to create small groups using the different techniques (simple hemstitch, small lily stitch, etc.). It was very popular in the 1998 Collections of Missoni and Julien MacDonald.