Bilbille, Baudre and Co discovered in Sunny Bank Mills Archive

February 17th, 2020

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The volunteers at Sunny Bank Mills Archive are working hard to help research and preserve the collection.  While gradually going through our large collection of Guard books, which are a fantastic reference of all cloth production here at the mill, we discovered a very different book.  This Guard book is very large and a bit tatty but contains an enormous amount of silk samples from a company called Bilbille, Baudre and Co.  Bilbille, Baudre and Co were a Parisian textile sampling house who predicted trends in textiles and produced for the trade.

As Sunny Bank Mills has always produced fine worsted suit cloth material for men, it seems strange to find this book hidden within the collection.  It is safe to assume however, that as designers gather inspiration from everywhere this was perhaps another source of inspiration on weave, colours and texture.  It certainly shows a variety of design and colour dating from the 1930’s.  This helps to create a bigger picture of fashion and trends during this period, putting context to Sunny Bank Mills textile output and the world outside of Farsley. Interesting links http://textilearchive.bradfordcollege.ac.uk/node/51

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