I first started by finding a book about textiles and inside I came across a photograph of a textile that was described as, ‘Hand blocked piece-cloths from Bokhara and the surrounding villages, designed as a prayer cloth’ Harvey J, (1996) Traditional Textiles of Central Asia, Hong Kong: Kwong Fat Offset Printing Co. Ltd.
After that I was intrigued by the paisley pattern on the fabric and wanted to find out more about it.
I then researched the history of paisley pattern. The site described the paisley pattern or form as a teardrop or a kidney. This teardrop symbol was called boteh which means shrub of leaves in Persian.
Ancient Babylon in the present day Iraq is claimed to be one place of origin of the paisley form, possibly dating back to 1700BCE, Paisleypower (2017), The History of Paisley Symbol and Paisley Pattern. Available from http://www.paisleypower.com/history-of-paisley.
Paisley pattern were very popular in the 1960s especially with the young generation. So I then went on to look at any newspaper article about paisley in fashion. The pattern had not been popular since 1990s until 2011 for 2012 spring/summer collection.
But then the pattern made a surprise appearance at this London fashion week. Here, a model walks the runway at the Jonathan Saunders S/S 2012 show, where the print played a defining role in the designer’s collection. Jonathan Saunders’ collection offered a stunning, updated revamp of a print which can easily be fussy and overcomplicated. Crowling S, (2011) London Fashion Week; A Brief History of Paisley, The Guardian, 26th September.