Friday, August 29, 2025
As we head into fall (and hopefully cooler weather), perhaps you're thinking of adding a few new items to your wardrobe. If we were living in 1970, you could take a hint from the following DuPont film and consider one of the fall-inspired designs made from Qiana fabric:
Developed by DuPont in the late 1960s, Qiana was a soft nylon fabric intended to mimic the look and feel of silk. It was used to create an array of "luxury" pieces, including dresses, blouses, pajamas, and neckties. Qiana became a popular textile choice in the 1970s and 80s and was often used for the bold-patterned shirts worn by people on a night out at the disco. Eventually, Qiana fell out of favor among designers and producers, and DuPont allowed the brand trademark to lapse in 1992.
To learn more about Qiana and view some of the pieces in Hagley's collection, check out this article from the Hagley Museum: https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/museum-collection-introducing-qiana-nylon-couture. And, as always, please visit Hagley's Digital Archives for access to an array of items from the Library's holdings.
Ona Coughlan is the Audiovisual Digitization Archivist at Hagley Museum and Library