Alamode' as a fabric In the 1600s, alamode as a noun referred to a type of silk, according to Esther Singleton and Russell Sturgis, The Furniture of Our Forefathers, volume 2 (1906): Alamode, a thin, glossy, black silk, is mentioned in 1676 in company with “Taffaties, Sarsenets and Lutes.”
We have ample proof that these black whisks [neck coverings] were in general wear in England. In an account-book of Sarah Fell of Swarthmoor Hall in 1673, are these items : "a black alamode whiske for Sister Rachel ; a round whiske for Susanna ; a little black whiske for myself."
Who knew it was a fabric term, too????