Hosiery Museum (Hotel de Vauluisant)

The Hotel de Vauluisant contains two departments of the museums of the city of Troyes – one for art and one for hosiery (‘bonneterie’ in French). Troyes became a leading centre of knitted textiles in the eighteenth century. Knitting with a continuous thread makes flexible textiles that can fit the shapes of the body. They are used mainly for stockings (‘hose’) and hats (‘bonnets’) but also for objects such as jerseys, gloves, underwear and modern protective equipment.

The fine Renaissance building, begun in the sixteenth century, was bought by the city in 1932. The Hosiery Museum opened in 1948. It traces the industrial and social history of textiles in the region. The collections include knitting machines dating from the wooden equipment of the eighteenth century to the advanced technology of recent years, including the machines of engineering companies based in Troyes. There are also many examples of conserved textile objects, photographs and films, and a reconstructed hosiery workshop.