“One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art,” said the famously flamboyant Oscar Wilde, who loved nothing more than to lounge foppishly in a silk paisley smoking jacket and cravat. That Wilde and his demi-monde friends loved paisley – the painterly textile pattern that resembles a teardrop or seed-shaped vegetable – is no surprise. More surprising is how paisley has endured, and how the apparently immortal print has been enjoying yet another peak of fashionability – the catwalks of London, New York, Milan, and Paris have all seen a flutter or flash of it in recent seasons.
“Paisley has been a popular motif in fashion for centuries,” Jeremy Langmead, brand-and-content director of luxury menswear e-tailer Mr Porter, tells BBC Culture. “And especially in the West following the hippie-inspired styles of the 1960s and 1970s, which have been having a resurgence of late with brands such as Saint Laurent, Burberry and Gucci adopting paisley. Etro, the Italian brand, has also long-used the design in its menswear, especially in suit and jacket linings.” In womenswear, too, designers from Dolce & Gabbana and JW Anderson to Raf Simons at Jil Sander have incorporated paisley in recent years.
From its ancient Persian and Indian origins with its hidden messages and mysterious symbolism, the iconic motif has had quite a journey. The paisley pattern has traveled the silk routes from East to West, adorned the bandanas of cowboys and bikers, been adopted by the 19th Century boho set, been popularised by The Beatles, ushered in the hippy era and become an emblem of rock ‘n’ roll swagger and swank. And the Scottish city of Paisley, whose textiles history is intertwined with the famous print, is now bidding to be UK City of Culture for 2021.
The rich symbolism and rebellious aura that surround paisley have kept it alive, it seems. But perhaps the real secret to the print’s immortality is how it combines conformity with unruliness, how it blends its rich historicism with powerful adaptability, and how it is open to endless and unexpected re-invigoration and re-interpretation. Veronica Etro is keen to break new ground with the pattern, she says. “To develop further its boundaries without really breaking with the past – but looking to the future.” A classics scholar, forward thinker, and snappy dresser Oscar Wilde would no doubt have approved.
Source: BBC
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