Ieper, textile city?

As the city of Ieper (or Ypres in French) has traditionally been linked to textile, it sounds completely logical that Ieper is Picanol’s home base. However, it is in fact more of a coincidence than logical for a loom manufacturer to be based in Ieper. Although the name of the city is still associated with the world famous Ieper textile industry, it is quite hard to find a relationship between the two. In the Middle Ages – around the 13th century – the city indeed enjoyed a leading position in Europe: its successful Ieper cloth was sold all over Europe and beyond, as far as the coastal areas of Asia minor and the northern part of Africa. Yet at the end of the 13th century, the expansive trading area started to shrink. Whereas roughly 2,000 weaving looms were operational in the middle of the century, that number decreased to some 500 around the year 1500 and plummeted to a mere 12 in 1700. Hence at the time of Picanol’s incorporation, Ieper had already been without a textile industry for two centuries. At that point in history, the area around the city was still recovering from WWI. It was in fact a highly isolated agricultural region with few skilled labourers and the textile industry was basically non-existent. That after a silence of more than 200 years Ieper again tied in with an age-old tradition is therefore above all a coincidence. And again, the city would become the centre point for trade to all the corners of the world. Let’s have a look at how history began for Picanol.