What Westerners now call paisley print traces all the way back from a sacred Persian motif to a print now associated with 1960s Flower Power and the 2010’s brightly colored lunch boxes. We dig into the motif's roots in ancient Persia and Kashmir, how it got wrapped up with the East India Company and popularized in Europe, why the West named it after a Scottish town, and how it went from a status symbol for the elite to paisley's very different life today, from Rimzim Dadu's cord work to Etro's brand identity.

Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:13 Gals Catch Up 03:39 Setting the Scene: Ancient Paisley Origins 06:01 Kashmir, Emperor Akbar & the Shawls of Empire 08:14 Trade Routes, Spread of Paisley, Drawing the Line on Paisley vs. the Bandana 10:32 How "Paisley" Got Its Name, Jacquard Looms and Mass Production of Paisley 14:26 On Bandanas, Their Origin, and Tie to Paisley 16:34 "Sham Cashmere": Classism in the Mills, The Aesthetic and Art Nouveau 21:37 The Decline: Bustles, War & the American West 22:46 Boho, Rebellion & the Summer of Love 26:08 The Beatles & Their Love for Paisley 28:21 Cultural Appropriation, Reconsidered 31:56 Paisley's Life Outside the West (Manifest Magazine, Rimzim Dadu) 36:38 Etro’s Heritage and Paisley 41:53 Personal Feelings & Feeling 45:07 See You Soon! Find our full visual guide, references, and show notes → linked here.

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