From roughly 1800 to 1850, Paisley’s weavers became the foremost producers of the delicate woollen shawls whose exotic patterns originated in Kashmir.
Unique additions to their hand-looms and Jacquard looms allowed them to work in five colours when most weavers elsewhere were producing paisley using only two.
The design became known as the Paisley pattern and, while the shawls themselves, fell out of fashion in the 1870s, the pattern that decorated them remains popular around the world today.
