A fine, lightweight net fabric used in garments, veils and decoration.
Tulle is a very fine, lightweight net with a hexagonal mesh, machine-made and often starched, in cotton, nylon, rayon or silk. The Textile Research Centre in Leiden notes that the word is often used as a synonym for net, but that tulle proper is bobbinet, invented in Britain in the early 19th century: the weft threads are wrapped around the warp threads and stay under tension, which keeps the hexagons in shape. A patent held by the bobbinet maker Heathcoat Fabrics notes that bobbinet is still made with the mechanisms John Heathcoat devised, slowly and expensively; its alternative is a tulle knitted on warp-knitting machines.
The V&A notes that the bobbinet machine produced fine net wide enough for dresses, that net dresses were worn over underdresses of plain silk, and that machine net made an ideal ground for hand embroidery. Its record of a 1934 Schiaparelli wedding dress lists a silk tulle veil.
In job listings
Tulle seldom names a role. It belongs to bridal and eveningwear: a department store’s bridal coordinator works in its bridal salon, and a boutique alterations associate fits and alters eveningwear, bridal and tailored pieces, with experience of couture-level garments strongly preferred. See current bridal roles.
