Types of Lace Explained: A Plain Guide to the Names
Product descriptions use lace names as if everyone knows them. Most people don't, and the names aren't intuitive — some describe a technique, some a place, some a machine. Here is what the common terms actually mean, and what each one feels like to wear.
The One Distinction That Matters Most
Before the individual names: almost all lace sold today is machine-made. Handmade lace still exists, but it is a specialist craft priced accordingly, and it is not what you will find in an accessory under a hundred euros.
This is not a mark against machine lace. Modern machine lace reproduces historic patterns accurately and wears well. But it explains why two pieces described with the same name can differ — the name usually refers to the pattern or the structure, not to how it was made.
Chantilly
Fine, light, and defined by its outlined motifs — floral or scrolling designs traced with a slightly heavier thread against a very fine net ground. Originally from Chantilly in France, historically made in black silk.
It drapes softly and has almost no body of its own, which is why it is common in veils and shawls where you want the fabric to fall rather than hold a shape. Against skin it reads as delicate and slightly transparent.
Guipure
The opposite in feel. Guipure has no net ground at all — the motifs connect directly to each other with bars, so the lace is a solid pattern with open gaps between the elements. Heavier, stiffer, and it holds its own shape.
This is what you usually see in detachable collars, because a collar needs enough body to sit flat without support. It photographs boldly, with clear pattern definition even at a distance.
Crochet Lace
Made by looping thread with a hook rather than by weaving or knitting. The result has visible, chunky texture and a matte finish — nothing like the smooth surface of Chantilly.
Cotton crochet is opaque in the motifs and open between them, so it works as an actual garment fabric rather than only as trim. Our crochet blouses use this construction, which is why they read as summery and casual rather than formal.
Venise or Venetian
A raised, heavily textured lace with three-dimensional motifs, often floral, worked in thick thread. Related to guipure in that it has no net ground, but more sculptural.
Dramatic and substantial. Best in small doses — a cuff, a collar, a border — rather than across a whole garment, where it becomes overwhelming.
Tulle and Net
Strictly, these are not lace at all. Tulle is a plain hexagonal mesh, and net is its coarser relative. They appear constantly in lace products as the ground fabric that lace motifs are applied to, or as the body of a veil with lace only at the edge.
If a product is described as tulle with lace trim, the tulle is doing the covering and the lace is doing the decorating.
Eyelet or Broderie Anglaise
Not technically lace either — it is embroidery. Holes are cut into a solid fabric, usually cotton, and the edges finished with stitching. The effect is open and airy but the base is a real woven cloth.
Sturdier and more washable than true lace, which is why it appears in warm-weather clothing rather than in evening accessories.
Stretch Lace
A construction rather than a pattern. Elastic fibre is worked into the lace so it gives in both directions. Any of the pattern styles above can be made as stretch lace.
This is what makes one-size lace gloves possible. The trade-off is that the pattern distorts slightly under tension, so a stretch piece on a larger frame shows a more open version of the same design.
How to Read a Description
Two things tell you more than the lace name does.
Fibre. Cotton is matte, breathable, and softens with washing. Polyester and nylon hold pattern definition sharply, resist creasing, and have more sheen. Neither is better — cotton suits daytime and warm weather, synthetics photograph crisply and survive an event without wrinkling.
Whether it is lined. An unlined lace top is transparent. A lined one is not. This affects how you can wear it far more than the pattern name does.
Common Questions
Is machine-made lace lower quality?
Not inherently. Quality depends on the fineness of the thread, the density of the pattern, and the finishing. A well-made machine lace outperforms a poorly finished handmade one.
Which lace is most durable?
Guipure and cotton crochet, because both have substance and no fragile net ground to snag. Chantilly is the most delicate of the common types.
Does lace type change how I wash it?
Less than fibre does. Cotton tolerates more than silk or fine synthetics. Whatever the type, cool water and drying flat is the safe default.
Why does the same lace look different in two photos?
Backing and lighting. Lace over skin reads differently than lace over fabric, and the same piece photographs lighter against a pale background than a dark one.
If you take one thing from this: guipure holds shape, Chantilly drapes, crochet has texture. That covers most of what you need to predict how a piece will behave before it arrives.