Paisley shawls

In the eighteenth century, travel, trade, and colonisation, namely by the British East India Company, saw examples of Kashmir shawls brought back to Europe.

Around 1805, the first shawls in imitation of Kashmir originals were produced in Paisley, Scotland, following manufacture in Lyon, Edinburgh, and Norwich in the latter decades of the eighteenth century.

[2] Similar patronage of declining textile industries had been shown by the Queen with other British products, like the Honiton lace she wore on her wedding dress in 1840.

The popularity of the shawl declined in the 1870s, due in part to a reduction in price and increase in availability, and also a change in women's fashion, transforming crinoline skirts into the bustle.

[5]: 42  Another reason for their reduced popularity was due to their limited availability: the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) prevented the export of fine goat-hair shawls from Kashmir.

This caused a reduction of wages, autonomy, and prestige, altering the social standing of the Paisley weaver as well as their independence as a practitioner.

Square Paisley shawl of ca 1830
1860s ambrotype of an unnamed British veteran and his wife; the woman is wrapped in a Paisley shawl
1824 portrait of an elegant lady with an embroidered shawl
Shawl of 1840–1850
Paisley Museum houses a nationally significant collection of Paisley Shawls