[Shawl, made in Kashmir, India, circa 1867. Philadelphia Museum of Art.]
[19th century French boutis via Pierre Deux's French Country.]
You know, small orderly rows of stylized leaves or flowers sometimes flanked by a wilder border. The kinds of colorful cottons associated with venerable Souleiado.
[Ann Mashburn blouse.]
The ancestors of these textiles are actually Indian block prints -- imported cottons so popular in 17th century France that Louis XIV ultimately banned them in a move to save local textile manufacturers struggling to compete with the influx of Indian-made goods. By the next century, the French were successfully producing their own indiennes, a fusion of European and Asian styles.
[Singh's White Chintz Buti via Aleta.]
Lately I've been thinking about other intersections of French and Indian design. In her new book, Jaipur Quilts, Krystyna Hellstrom compares decoratively stitched French Provencal boutis (this example is Italian but very similar in style) to Indian covers.
My blurred-boundaries French-Indian find of the day is from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, shown at top: an antique woven Kashmiri shawl with chain stitch embroidery. Clearly the trees, flowering plants and paisley motif feel Indian but the museum notes that there is "French-style drapery" surrounding an unusually bold spoked wheel in the center.
If you're a fan of rustic French style, take a glance at some Provencal sightings in Shampoo.
2 comments:
Love all the beautiful patterns and colors and especially how you incorporated an Ann Mashburn top into it! Thanks always for your wonderful insight Courtney!
Thank you, Laura! BTW, I've seen that red shirt in person -- even better up close :)
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