Hi! I found this breathtaking dress the other day and am curious to know what type of fabric it might be made from. There's glittery thread that appears to be woven over the primary fabric to create a really gorgeous silver floral overlay ( the primary fabric feels kind of gauzy and silky but rough to the touch - if that makes sense♀️). I've done my best to capture the texture of the material in the photos but I'm not sure it translates all that well. Thanks so much in advance for your advice❤️
It's good to know the base, first. There are a few sites online that tell you how to do burn tests on a little extra fabric taken from an inside seam. That's a good start but it's def a "woven" and as Wyogems stated, use "Lurex" for the metallic touches.
I have a dress made from the same kind of fabric - wholly different colorway, but also a paisley print with these metallic thread flowers. Mine's a 60s cocktail dress, and I would guess yours is from the 60s as well. Not jacquard or brocade in my view (that is a type of weave, but definitely very different from this), but I would call the metallic thread lurex. As to what the material content could be, no idea. If there's anywhwere where you could snip off a few threads just from the fabric, you could do a burn test to find out what it is - see here: https://vintagefashionguild.org/determining-fiber/. On mine I am assuming it is something synthetic due to how it feels. I can't to any tests with mine because it's fully lined and there's nowhere where I could snip a few threads off.
To me, the floral fabric looks like a screen printed pattern, not a woven pattern. So it would not be a jacquard weave. The silver threads are, as has been said, probably Lurex, and done as an overlay weave (like drop needle) after printing.
