Hidden Histories of the Paisley Museum Shawl Collection, delivered by Catriona Baird
As an established centre of skilled textile production from the 1700s, Paisley quickly became involved in the new fashion in Europe for ‘imitation Indian’ shawls - copies of luxurious Kashmir shawls with their distinctive teardrop shaped motif. The town was successful in its ability to innovate and develop western textile technologies to produce large numbers of the shawls. In doing so, by the 19th century it had become a main centre for the textile trade. This resulted in the curved motif eventually becoming known as ‘Paisley’ in much of the English speaking world.
In this film Catriona Baird, Textiles Curator for the Paisley Museum Re-Imagined Project, discusses the large collection of shawls that Paisley Museum holds. She offers an insight into how the collection came into being, looking at some key shawl donations over the past 100 years. Catriona tells the stories of specific people and local families who were involved, and takes a look at a range of fascinating objects from the collection.