Beige linen canvases, silk-screened with tile patterns and collaged with colorful flower images, would register as pictures but for attached garlands of raggedy, lustrous fabric.
The best-known animal-bride story is, perhaps, the Japanese folktale "The Crane Wife," which is surpassingly beautiful: a tale of mutual sacrifice and betrayal, with a pivotal scene of a young man peeking into a room to see his wife as a crane, weaving a lustrous fabric out of her own feathers and blood.
The Jacobeans also adored lustrous fabrics set off by jewels and sparkling accessories.
The use of these heavy lustrous fabrics gradually altered the style of dress; the stiff, ornate materials lent themselves to a simpler cut with only a few folds to break up the often allover, large-motif designs.
Best of all, perhaps, is the short series of velvet shots; the model is supine in a gray armchair, her legs and torso lapped at the side by waves of lustrous black fabric.
To whatever extent the instrument rather than the instrumentalist is responsible for the sounds produced, the lustrous sonic fabric created by the string players assembled here was of undeniable quality, bringing a richness of substance and a refinement of surface to virtually everything they attempted.
Sophie Mallebranche, winner of an award for textile design at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in May, creates lustrous woven fabrics by weaving metallic threads -- copper, stainless steel, bronze or brass -- with linen, silk or silicone fibers.
The term 'silk' makes almost all of us think first of lustrous and shimmery fabrics.
The opening scene lingers on a full sized screen of cherry red rhythmically undulating charmeuse, both lustrous and reflective, as if the fabric itself was alive and breathing rather heavily.
Working with Jacques Garcia, a Parisian designer, and Kevin White, a New York architect, Mr. Bouley has transformed a narrow, oddly configured industrial building into an opiate dream of lush fabrics, deeply saturated decadent colors and lustrous glazed surfaces.
The fabric is characterized by a smooth surface and usually a lustrous face and dull back; it is made in a wide variety of weights for various uses, including dresses, particularly evening wear; linings; bedspreads; and upholstery.
