Heritage of Linen Fiber

Did you know that for millennia, linen has been associated with high civilisation? The Sumerian poem of the courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi (Tammuz), translated by Samuel Noah Kramer and Diane Wolkstein, mentions flax and linen. It opens with briefly listing the steps of preparing linen from flax, in a form of questions and answers between Inanna and her brother Utu.

In ancient Egypt, linen was used for mummification and for burial shrouds, along with being worn as clothing on a daily basis. Linen fabric was venerated for its purity and longevity – the shrouds and curtains in the tomb of Pharaohs Ramses II and Tutankhamen were found in a condition of perfect preservation even after more than 3,000 years.

Linen makes appearances in the sacred texts of every religion, earning 58 mentions in the Bible, where even angels chose the soft embrace of fine white linen.

During medieval times, linen continued to be extremely sought after and was celebrated as the attire of royalty, signifying class and aristocracy.

In 1632, the Earl of Strafford and later, the Duke of Ormonde encouraged the rapid growth of the Irish linen industry, resulting in an incredibly lucrative global trade by the 19th century.

Through the centuries, the process of making the finest linen became more and more refined, with more effective machinery being developed to make finer weaves than ever before. Still, the fabric was a foreign export. Colonial India only encountered this fabric through the British for hundreds of years.

Cultivated with love, flax is grown in a wide coastal band of Western Europe stretching from the South of Normandy in Northern France through Belgium and the Netherlands - from Caen to Amsterdam. In fact, this natural fibre is the only plant textile fibre that actually originates in Europe. Thanks to a fertile combination of the natural, damp oceanic climate, flax's inherently low thermal density, rich soil and millennia of growing experience, European flax can still never be duplicated elsewhere on the planet. Ask any fabric connoisseur: European linen fabric is one of a kind.

Although the world was familiar with the elegance and nobility of the quality of linen by the 20th century, this incredible fabric only arrived in India with the help of Jaya Shree Textiles 2 years after Indian independence.

For decades, this company - under the name Linen Club- practised the making of the finest, most fashionable linen collection through the use of advanced European technology and high quality flax from Belgium and France. This, combined with an untiring dedication to brilliance and perfection and a fulfilling partnership with the European Confederation of Linen and Hemp (CELC), quickly cemented Linen Club's position as India's finest linen brand.

Today, Linen Club is synonymous with the idea of the most vibrant and in-vogue linen fabrics in over 50 countries across 6 continents. Often imitated, but impossible to perfect without years of single-minded dedication.