Recycled Fashion

The fashionable woollen shawl industry was most successful in the middle of the nineteenth century, and was based primarily at Paisley in Scotland and Norwich in East Anglia. Intricately woven shawls, often incorporating the Indian "botah" leaf motif, now known as the Paisley pattern, were worn for warmth with wide crinoline dresses, over which an overcoat could not fit. Less expensive printed versions were also available. From the 1870s, the industry gradually declined although the fine quality shawls were still treasured, and sometimes remade into mantles or skirts in the 1880s.

This paisley shawl from the 1860s has secured an even longer life in fashion: it was cut up and remade in the 1920s into a smart belted fitted jacket; and then in the 1960s this jacket was trimmed with mink, and a matching loose top was made up out of remnants to be worn underneath. Expensive, hard wearing, exotic or unsual fabrics like this could clearly be adapted to a range of different uses, over a considerable period of time.

Full item descriptions:

"jacket & top" [2003.50]

Related Themes:

Materials and Making