It is a Striped World

Nautical Stripes. Bretonne Stripes. Awning Stripes. Shirting Stripes. Heraldic Stripes. Regiment stripes. Zebra Stripes. What is it about stripes that we love so much?

They are linear and organized which is nice in our crazy, mixed up, contradictory, fast paced world. They can be bold and colorful or soft and subtle and we tend to like versatile, flexible things.

But it was not until Interior Designer friend, Michele Kellett, gave me a book by Michel Pastoureau called, “The Devil’s Cloth, a History of Stripes and Striped Fabric” that I understood the lasting appeal of stripes. What is that appeal? Scandal!

Michel Pastoureau is an authority on Medieval Heraldry. He is a paleographer archivist and Professor of the History of Western Symbols, as well as the Director of Studies, at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes at the Sorbonne. Section IV, in Paris.

Mr. Pastoureau’s theory is that a scandal in the Catholic Church involving the Carmelite religious order in which their required wearing of striped habits (uniforms) caused quite a stir in the “West” when they arrived there from the “East” during the Crusades. The scandal lasted some 50 years until the Carmelites were forced by the religious rulers of the time to wear quiet, solid colored clothing. Striped clothing was relegated to fringe characters like jugglers, prostitutes and musicians. Even the Devil himself is seen wearing striped clothing in some medieval paintings.

We can all think of images for the downtrodden and tortured who were forced to wear stripes as a form of humiliation and association.

Think of all the recently and currently famous people with whom striped clothing is associated. Would Elton John have been chastised for his bejeweled striped jackets? What about Michael Jackson?

We can all breathe easier now that stripes connote playfulness, freedom, weekend wear and sport. In some cases they connote success and status—think bankers’ stripes, refined shirting stripes with regimental striped ties.

“The Devils Cloth” is a lively education on the evolution of stripes which takes them from visually abhorrent to desirable and chic in six short centuries.