“Foulard” is one of those French words that sounds like the thing it describes: soft, light, faintly luxurious. It began simply as a name for a fine printed silk; today we use it for the square scarf that has quietly finished outfits for two centuries.
Silk, and the road it travelled
Silk was China's secret for thousands of years, carried west along the trade routes that took its name. By the time it reached Europe it was the fabric of status, and the printed silk neckcloth became a fixture of the well-dressed, from cravats to fichus.
The square comes of age
The modern silk square, the carré, took its definitive form in 1930s Paris, where printing houses began producing printed squares in fine imported silk. It became a canvas: a small, wearable print that could carry a painting, a map, a piece of mythology. Over the decades that followed it grew into one of the most recognisable accessories in the world.
A scarf is the smallest gallery you can own, and the only one you can wear to dinner.
