A woven fabric whose raised decorative pattern is formed with additional patterning threads.
Brocade is patterned in the weaving. Alongside the ground warp and weft, a supplementary brocading weft is woven in only where the pattern needs it, rather than running from selvage to selvage, and builds raised figures in contrasting surfaces or colors. The cloth is typically richly figured and worked with metal thread, often on silk. The SILKNOW silk thesaurus lists its uses as dresses, wraps, draperies and upholstery.
Brocade may be woven on a jacquard loom, which in the Getty vocabulary made complex patterns such as brocade and damask possible; the two terms are not opposites, since jacquard names the loom and any figured cloth woven on it. Brocade is not embroidery: the Getty vocabulary defines brocading as a weaving technique and sends stitched decoration to embroidering. Nor is it damask, which uses one warp and one weft and draws its pattern from contrasting weave structures, reversed on the back.
In job listings
Brocade is rarely named in luxury listings. The nearest roles are in woven textile design and development: textile designers preparing pattern repeats and supplier files, and accessories designers who develop jacquard and embroidery with fabric development teams and mills. See current jacquard roles.
