Comparative analysis of preservative coatings for gold-colored and holographic lamé fabrics

Abstract

In this paper, we study and analyze the properties of a specific group of synthetic textiles: lamé fabrics with a polyester base and a metallic surface. As designers increasingly use lamé, these materials are finding their way into major museum collections in growing numbers. Since the long-term preservation of these fabrics is a fundamental task for museologists, we set out to select the most suitable coating material to protect them. To date, systematic research on remedial preservative coatings for composite, metallic-coated synthetic textiles remains critically scarce, leaving a significant gap in professional conservation guidelines. With this goal in mind, we treated specially prepared two types of lamé test samples, gold-colored and holographic, with six different preservative coatings. These included two natural-based formulations (chitosan and Poligen ES 91009) and four acrylic-based resins (Paraloid B67, Plexisol P550, a mixture of Paraloid B67 and B44, and Incralack). We performed various destructive and non-destructive tests on both uncoated and coated samples to obtain objective data on their properties. Due to the knitted construction of the samples, we assessed their strength using the ball burst method and furthermore measured color and gloss changes, fabric thickness, projected yarn diameter, covering layer thickness, wale and course density, mass, and bending stiffness. After summarizing our results, we found that the most promising coating material is Plexisol P550, an organic solution of butyl methacrylate-based acrylic resin . Specifically, Plexisol P550 demonstrated the highest optical and dimensional stability, limiting the total color difference to