LACE, MACHINE, JABOT

Machine lace jabot, a fashionable female costume accessory worn late 1800s and early 20th century by donor’s grandmother and great-grandmother in Victoria.

Consists of machine embroidery on net, and medallions of chemical lace in the centre in floral design.

A jabot from French jabot 'a bird's crop') is a decorative clothing-accessory consisting of lace or other fabric falling from the throat, suspended from or attached to a neckband or collar, or simply pinned at the throat. Its current form evolved from the frilling or ruffles decorating the front of a shirt, a key component of upper-class male fashion

in 16th and 17th centuries.

In the 19th century, they were worn by women and often held in place with brooches or sewn-on neckbands. Today they are still worn with formal attire: part of official costume of judges, university chancellors, as part of the highest formal Scottish evening attire and part of the vestment of a verger.