Malta’s best-known textile craft is its lace, known locally as bizzilla.
A distinctive style
Maltese lace is a guipure-style bobbin lace, worked on a tall, narrow pillow held almost upright. The Textile Research Centre in Leiden notes that it is traditionally made from ecru silk, with black versions also existing. Its signature motif is the Maltese cross, alongside plaited braids, small plump leaves called wheat ears and a geometric overall design. Lacemaking is especially popular on Gozo.
From convents to the Great Exhibition
ICH Malta traces the craft to the cotton trade with Genoa from 1530 and says it was promoted in the convents of Mdina. Needle lace was made on the islands from at least the 16th century, but bobbin lace arrived only in the first half of the 19th. Lady Hamilton Chichester is credited with bringing Genoese lacemakers to Malta in the 1830s, and with adding the cross to set the lace apart. It was shown at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and was copied in Britain as Bedfordshire Maltese lace.
Still made today
Lacemaking appears in Malta’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, entered in 2018. A lacemaking programme began at the University of Malta’s Gozo Centre in 1996, and the Malta Lace Guild was founded in 2000. Delicate trims and collars remain a gentle way to add heritage detail to a wardrobe.
Sources: Wikipedia: Maltese lace, Textile Research Centre, Leiden: Maltese lace, a brief history, Textile Research Centre, Leiden: Maltese lace technique, ICH Malta: Maltese lace making (Bizzilla).
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