Hello to all of our paisley and plaid fans out there!
When we think of style with staying power, motifs from fashion meccas like Paris and Milan most often come to mind. Yet Scotland popularized two of the most enduring designs in the pantheon of patterns—paisley and plaid.
FABLED FASHION
Paisley had Persian origins, but its namesake is an industrious town in the Scottish lowlands. The town's mills mass-produced affordable knock-offs of pricey Persian shawls featuring the traditional teardrop design. The town helped popularize the pattern with the public in Britain and beyond and is the reason the design was dubbed with a new name, paisley.
Plaid, also known as tartan among rebellious Scottish clans, has an equally storied history that includes being banned in Britain under the Dress Act of 1746. The ban backfired big time and made it more popular than ever. After plaid crossed the pond, an American ad man named William B. Laughead helped popularize the pattern in ads for Red River Lumber Company in which he dressed fictional folk hero Paul Bunyan in a classic red-and-black plaid flannel shirt.
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