Every pattern has a paper trail.

Gingham, denim, paisley: every named cloth was first woven somewhere, named for something, and carried a route to reach us. Here is that record, with the geometry of each pattern rendered from its own specification, and a source under every claim.

Today’s specimen

Plate No. 048 · fabric

Damask

Damask is a self-patterned cloth: its ornament is woven, not printed, by setting a satin figure against a sateen ground in a single color, so the motif appears and disappears as light moves across the two surfaces. The technique is ancient Chinese, the name medieval, taken from Damascus where European traders met the cloth.

First documented Middle Ages · Syria

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