PAISLEY AS KING

Above:  Corner of  Ralph Lauren shawl. Below: Heraldic-like paisley at the center.

This Ralph Lauren shawl from c. 1986 is an excellent example of Paisley as a Royal Symbol.  The large center motif is shown as almost a heraldic coat of arms with the paisley forming several outer frames.

Of course, when the Mughal King Akbar set out to establish shawl production in mid 16th century Kashmir, the intended target customer was the royal male.  The shawl was worn in a variety of ways, diagonally across shoulder and chest, around the waist, as a turban. 

Part of the Lauren design dynamic has always been paisley and after Bill Atkinson Ltd. had closed its doors in 1982,  Jeanne Atkinson was recruited as Director of Ralph Lauren's Designer Division. It was an excellent match from both design and financial perspectives. Unpublished figures show a sizable turn-around profit for the division in 1986.  The shawl is from Atkinson's personal collection.  JP

TWO OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS WERE INFLUENCED BY PAISLEY

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne is a treasure of a book. Austen's life spins out through the writer's focus on a few well-chosen objects. One of the first objects is "The East Indian Shaw,l" with its bit of the shawl history.and the use of the correct term for paisley, boteh.

 Byrne mentions Austen's Aunt Phila,who was sent a shawl by her husband living in Calcutta in 1772. She also references a story that the young Jane created in 1792. Catherine, or the Bower was modeled after Phila who traveled to India in search of a rich husband. The book provides a color plate of what could be the young Austen sisters wearing shawls loosely around their shoulders with as much flirty charm as today's woman wears a multi-looped scarf around her neck. And there is second color plate of what might have been Jane Austen's fine red-yellow-and-tan striped shawl with tiny boteh within some of the stripes.

Henry James's Washington Square also has its wonderful reference to boteh when Catherine brings a statusy shawl back to Aunt Lavinia after an extensive European tour. In the most recent Broadway production, The Heiress based on the James novel, costume designer Albert Wolsky has his looks pitch-perfect. And actress Judith Ivey plays Lavinia and her shawl beautifully. Lavinia self-importantly drapes it on her shoulders, takes it off and folds it as if it were a Cloth of Gold. One can see that the shawl was not only an object of desire in this era but part of the mannerisms of the day. JP

MUGHAL FLOWERS IN DETROIT

Paisley motif is formed of regal flowers in a vase. on an 18th century shawl.

 

 

 

The book, "Mastery of Mughal Decoration:  The Art and Architecture of Islamic India" helps recall the beautiful exhibit perhaps four summers ago at the Detroit Institute of Arts, "The Private World of India's Mughal Emperors".  This Kashmiri design is especially refined with its little floral tips dipping to let us know that this really is the boteh (paisley to the English-speakers) motif.  In 18th century India, the long shawl would be worn by an important man in the society either on the diagonal over one shoulder or as a waist sash.

However, there is another flowering in Detroit that is just as beautiful to me.  It is the new Shinola craft-and-e business concept based on the establishment of local crafts shops.  In the majestic Argonaut building, inside the College for Creative Studies, there is watch factory built on the Swiss crafts model.  In Ste. Genevieve, Mo., there is a leather goods factory.  In Waterford, Wisc., there is the Waterford Precision Cycle Shop. In Chicago, there is the Horween Leather Company.  In Ann Arbor, Mich., there is the Malloy Paper Works.

Often as I read and write about the brilliant days of Kashmiri weaving and see what happened when Europe took over the "paisley" shawl craft, I think of Detroit.  Past mistakes are past mistakes and now Shinola is building small and carefully. Interestingly, the Shinola watch is already a male status symbol, just as the boteh sash once was. Hint:  Shinola.com.  JP

JEANNE ATKINSON'S SHAWL HAS BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES

Early Etro camel-and-maroon shawl was an accent for Bill Atkinson Ltd. fashions

Atkinson's beautiful Etro shawls have been housed in their drawers in recent years, at times taken out and worn, but mostly they have just nestled in with other wonderful memories of her days as the dynamic CEO of Bill Atkinson Ltd.,  1974 though 1982.  These were the years when Ms. Atkinson's late husband Bill was the Coty-award-winning creative director and heart and soul of the designer sportswear company that kept customers of the best specialty stores in America beautifully dressed.   Ms. Atkinson merchandised the line, got it manufactured, sold to the stores and then flew around the country twice a year, doing the personal appearances that went along with the trunk shows.  This plus caring for a husband, two children and a big house.

During the late 70s and early 80s, Mr. Atkinson really believed in the magic of the shawl.  His wife thinks this shawl magic was ignited when the designer disappeared into Italy for a month.  When he had emerged again, he told stories of  spending time with Gimmo Etro, about falling in love with the paisley patterns, the Italian workmanship. He also produced a deal allowing his company to distribute the shawls in the states.  During these early years, the shawls bore no logos.

It had become sort of expected of Bill Atkinson, that he would pair beautiful Etro shawls with his fall-winter fashion collections.  The camel-and-maroon shawl shown here marched down the New York Fashion Week runway with a reddish-brown suede jacket and a sweep of black suede skirt with vertical bands of brown. For added charm, the designer had a paisley pattern cut out on the shawl collar of the jacket.  To Mr. Atkinson's educated eye, shawl and separates colors were meant to blend but never, never match. The sienna brown of the jacket and true brown of the skirt details just lived happily with the earth colors in their shawl. 

The shawl we show has always been one of Ms. Atkinson's favorites.  Now as manager and member of Global Marketing Strategies LLC in New York, she enjoys wearing the shawls and separates occasionally.  When last I saw her, she looked very 2013 in one of the Bill Atkinson gentle black suede skirts with a black jersey top and graceful gold-chain necklace. When she went out for her day, she could easily have added the shawl. JP

A PAISLEY CELEBRATION FROM UZBEKISTAN

Luscious 19th century coat from the Bokhara province, located on the Silk Road

This, from Asian Costumes and Textiles from the Bosphorus to Fujiyama, (Skira editore, Milan, 2001), a book lent to me by the fashion legend, Gloria Sachs.  The brocaded Chinese silk robe was made for an Ottoman dignitary.  Its embroidered design is a red fruit-like paisley, framed by two white-and-airy paisleys. The lining is a Russian cotton print in a flower-filled paisley. Border trim, inside and out are perfect counterpoint prints for the paisley. All in all, the coat is a four-print smash-up that sings!
And the photo by Mauro Magliani is a dream. JP

HOLIDAY PAISLEY FROM THE RUBIN MUSEUM

Metallic gold and green design of graceful vines that have grown holiday paisley

When Akbar, the famous mughal emperor (1542-1605), first got the inspiration to bring Kashmir's yarn producers and spinners, dyers and weavers together — both Moslem and Hindu — for his important shawl project, it was with the knowledge that the boteh or paisley motif that would be used in the designs was sacred.  It was to be worn only by very important men.  Somehow through centuries of weaving and printing, we continue to recognize the power and dignity of the motif when it decorates clothing, home furnishings and stationery, even birthday cards and shopping bags.

Above, a hand-stamped design on a card from The Rubin Museum of Art gift shop, New York. By its very two-color simplicity on a blank card, it offers a special inspiration. 

Happy holidays. JP

NOTICE-ME 1970s PAISLEY

Jonathan Adler's paisley print for upholstery

Madison Avenue window

Isn't it interesting that giant prints for home, fashion and art are making a  retro-return right now?  Take a walk down Madison Avenue.  We are seeing them in on the upholstery of Jonathan Adler furniture and in fun-and-statusy Milly dresses.  Stop at a news store.  We are seeing them on the 40th anniversary cover of W magazine with Rooney Mara wearing a geometric-patterned Prada coatdress. Make a turn onto Fifth Avenue and there are two gigantic Warhol flower prints taking twin-star positions on either side of The Met's main entrance doors, matched stunningly with equally gigantic real flower arrangements in the flower niches.  Take Fifth down to around 24th Street and there is a brand new Marimekko store with the same outsize poppy prints that made them a sensation from the 1950s to 1970s.

Admittedly, these giant prints are not always paisley, but there are enough paisleys to  make a noise about them -- not only Adler's upholstery, but single-paisley area rugs, giant paisley drapes, pillows and tablecloths from a variety of design houses and catalog companies.

It seems time to celebrate the Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) -- a generation influenced by 1970s-80s  Me Generation and rushing towards grandparenthood.  As Stéphane Houy-Towner observes, "Design fashion usually skips a generation.  The new generation likes to look back to its grandparents".  Perhaps Gaga's Little Monsters are not far from the Me's.  Both generations want to be noticed.  And yes, we do notice!  JP