The search for transparency and refinement in the ornamentation of clothing and household linen led lacemakers to invent a very light process through which embroidery was done on threads and not on fabrics. The Point de France produced by the manufactures of the kingdom acquired its own technical and stylistic characteristics with a background of pecked straps. The lacemakers of Alençon gradually freed themselves from it and created the Point d'Alençon. In 1675, when the monopoly granted to them by Louis XIV for a period of ten years expired, the royal factories had achieved their objective: the Point de France had outclassed that of Venice throughout Europe.