Textile Glossary : Shirting Motifs

The immaculate white shirt, long associated with status and privilege, started to evolve as fashion democratized during the Industrial Revolution—introducing patterns like stripes and checks to everyday wardrobes.

These patterns are created using dyed yarns, alternated with white threads in the warp to produce stripes, or in both warp and weft to produce checks. Such designs have become so prominent in the shirt industry that the term yarn-dyed (meaning woven with pre-dyed yarns) has become the standard term for shirting fabrics. This technique allows for an endless variety of patterns, some of which have become iconic.
In 1950s America, the Hawaiian shirt became a global symbol of the post-war American lifestyle. Alongside the formal shirt—typically made from yarn-dyed fabrics—the printed shirt became an essential of the casual wardrobe.
In the 1970s, meanwhile, printed shirts accompanied major societal changes in Europe. Women's emancipation led to the adoption of masculine-cut shirts adorned with prints, while the counterculture movement set the trend for unisex "flower power" shirts as a symbol of passive resistance. By the 1980s, with long-distance travel becoming more accessible, exotic prints became all the rage, echoing the rise of surf and skate culture.
Today, the separation between work and leisure, the city and the countryside, still finds its expression in the world of yarn-dyed textiles and prints.

Vichy

History: Originally from Malaysia, this fabric was introduced to Europe in the 17th century by the Dutch and the English, who began producing it. It was soon adopted by the French, especially in the Vichy region, where Empress Eugénie would help turn it into a fashion staple.

Technical description: A pattern of evenly spaced two-tone checks on plain-weave cotton fabric.

Product destination: Shirts, dresses, pants, spring-summer.

Alternative:
ZEPHYR: Two-tone checks or stripes on very light cotton canvas. Larger white yarns frame the colored stripes.

Madras

History: Of Indian origin, from the city of Madras, this fabric was made of silk warp and cotton weft. Imported to the Caribbean at the end of the 18th century and reinterpreted in cotton, it became a symbol for freed slaves in 1848 and is now an integral part of traditional Creole dress.

Technical description: Yarn-dyed with multicolored, irregular checks on a plain weave background.

Product destination: Shirts, dresses, scarves, handkerchiefs.

Tattersall

History: This pattern is named after Richard Tattersall, a horse market owner in late 18th-century England.

Technical description: A twill fabric with a check pattern of alternating fine lines in two different colors, usually black and beige, or brown and beige, on a cream background.

Product destination: Shirts, cardigans.

Dobby

History: Invented in the mid-19th century, the dobby loom made it possible to introduce subtle decorative effects into yarn-dyed woven fabrics.

Technical description: Shirting adorned with small, regular, symmetrical motifs, resembling simplified jacquards, created with dyed yarns through weave variations on a dobby loom.

Product destination: Shirts.

Bayadere 

History: Inspired by the costume of the "devadasi" dancers from India, this motif was introduced to Europe by the Portuguese who named it "bailadera" (dancer), which later became "bayadère" in French.

Technical description: A play of horizontal, multicolored, and irregular stripes created with dyed yarns and variations in the weave structure.

Product destination: Shirts, dresses, sarongs, shawls (with stripes often used vertically).

Bengale

History: The name of this stripe alludes to the distinctive striped turbans worn by the lancers of the British Indian Army (1858-1921), immortalized in Henry Hathaway's 1935 film "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer.”

Technical description: An alternating pattern of equally sized white and colored stripes, measuring 5 to 6 mm in width.

Product destination: Shirts, dresses.

Alternatives:
CANDY STRIPES: A pattern with alternating white and colored stripes, each measuring 2 to 3 mm in width.

CABANA STRIPES (AWNING): A pattern with alternating white and colored stripes, each wider than 6 mm.