Erla zwingle biography

Written and photographed by ERLA ZWINGLE

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in our Spring issue. It is being republished as originally written, without new reporting.

needle, a length of thread. For thousands of years, women used them mostly for practical, mundane work: making, mending, darning. But at some point in the 15th century in Italy, the needle began to dance. Knotted fringes and embroidery, knitting and crocheting had been known forever, but this was different.

Erla zwingle biography

Millions of microscopic, buttonhole stitches started to form sinuous patterns of swooping arabesques and delicate flowers, and the result was a length of threaded intricacy more like a spiderweb, or seafoam, or frost, than anything ever made before.

This was lace, and there was absolutely nothing practical about it. Someone called it “embroidering the air.”

By the late s, demand for lace became so intense that people started smuggling it. Lace was hidden in parasols, bak