The history of the silk foulard: from travelling kerchief to the Como square that represents a company

How a piece of cloth made to protect the neck became an accessory of style, a means of expression and a gift of representation.

The foulard is among the oldest accessories still in use, and among the few that have crossed the centuries without changing shape. A square of light cloth, hemmed on four sides, that folds, knots and rests on the shoulders. Everything else, colours, designs, material, ways of wearing it, has changed many times over, and every change tells the story of an era.

The word comes from French and originally meant a light kerchief of silk or cotton. Over the centuries the kerchief became an ornament, then a sign of belonging, then a collector’s piece and finally, in the twentieth century, one of the most elegant means by which an institution or a company can present itself.

At Seterie Mosconi we meet this history every day. In Lipomo, in the Como silk district, we design, print and hem silk foulards for fashion houses, institutions and companies, and have done so for three generations. We know that a client who gives a foulard hands over, along with the object, a piece of this tradition.

The main stages are five: the origins of the silk kerchief, the birth of the modern square, the role of the Como district in silk printing, the shift from the wardrobe to representation, and the foulard of today, between digital printing and art reproductions.

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1. The origins: a kerchief for protection and for distinction

The square of cloth knotted at the neck appears early in the history of dress, with practical purposes: shelter from cold, dust and sun. In antiquity and the Middle Ages it is found among the kit of travellers, soldiers and farm workers. The material is whatever is to hand: linen, wool, cotton. Silk remains a privilege for a long time.

The leap comes in the Europe of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when silk spreads through the courts and the merchant cities. The silk kerchief, often printed or embroidered, enters the male and female wardrobe as a sign of rank. It is worn at the neck, in the pocket, in the hand. This is the period in which the French word takes hold to describe both the light fabric and the accessory made from it.

In the nineteenth century textile printing makes the advances that turn the foulard into a designed object. Paisley motifs, flowers, hunting scenes and geometries are screen-printed on silk and sold in the great European cities. The practical kerchief and the ornamental one live side by side, and the second takes the name it still carries today.

This long history of function and distinction explains why the foulard withstands fashion: it is an object that served before it pleased. For a company giving one, that means handing over an accessory with a concrete use and a story behind it, two qualities that raise the perceived value of the gift.

Would you like a foulard that brings a centuries-old tradition into your company? Discover the personalised foulards of Seterie Mosconi.

2. The twentieth century and the birth of the modern square

It is the twentieth century that fixes the form we know. In the 1930s the French houses codify the carré, the silk square of around 90 centimetres, printed with complex designs and finished by hand. The foulard stops being one accessory among many and becomes a small-format work, with an author, a theme, an edition.

In the decades that follow the foulard enters the collective imagination thanks to the actresses, leading ladies and travellers of the 1950s and 1960s, who wear it knotted under the chin in an open-top car, over the hair on a boat, over the shoulders in the evening. Cinema crowns it as a symbol of easy elegance, and the fashion houses make it a collector’s object.

In the same period the formats still in use take shape: the 55-centimetre square, smaller and lighter, the 70 for everyday wear, the 90 for richer compositions. Alongside them come rectangular and oblong shapes, and the narrow ribbons that will later take the name twilly.

The twentieth century also leaves behind the idea that a foulard can tell a story: a city, a journey, a trade, an anniversary. The houses design themes; institutions, from airlines to public bodies, begin to understand that the same square can tell their story too.

Do you have a theme to tell in a square of silk? Our design team will translate it into a bespoke foulard.

3. Como and silk printing: where the foulard takes shape

The history of the foulard passes through Como. The Como silk district, active since the nineteenth century, became in the twentieth the place where the European houses had their squares printed. Here the designers gathered, the engravers of printing screens, the dye houses, the silk weaving mills and the workshops that finish the fabric by hand.

The technique that made the district’s fortune is hand screen printing: one screen for each colour, the fabric stretched on long tables, the colour drawn by hand through the screen, one pass after another until the complete design is built. It is slow work, demanding a good eye and coordination, and it is still used today for art reproductions and limited editions.

Seterie Mosconi was born in this setting, in 1951, with Gian Pietro Mosconi, and continues today with Giorgio and Lorenzo Mosconi. The Lipomo workshop has kept in house the stages that count: the choice of fine fabrics, printing, hand-rolled hemming, packaging. The foulard we deliver to a company comes from the same knowledge with which the district has served fashion for a century.

The hand-rolled hem deserves a word of its own. The edge of the foulard is rolled and stitched by hand, with invisible stitches, so that the fabric keeps its drape. It is the detail that marks out a Como foulard at a glance, and the first thing an expert eye looks for.

Would you like a foulard printed and hand-finished in the Como district? Request a quotation for your corporate collection.

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4. From the wardrobe to representation: the corporate foulard

The foulard’s move from the personal wardrobe to representation happens in the second half of the twentieth century. Airlines adopt it for cabin crew, hotels and banks for front-of-house staff, institutions for ceremonies. The silk square, in the colours and symbols of the organisation, becomes a light and recognisable image uniform.

From there to the corporate gift is a short step. A foulard with a design dedicated to the company says a great deal without resorting to a prominent logo: the palette, the motif, the quality of the silk and of the hem tell the story of the giver. The brand can appear in the woven label, in a corner of the design, or remain implicit in the consistency between the foulard’s colours and those of the visual identity.

In our experience the corporate foulard has three main uses. The first is the gift to female clients and colleagues, at the end of the year or on an anniversary. The second is the coordinated accessory for the staff of an event or trade fair. The third is the commemorative edition: a foulard printed for an anniversary, for the opening of a new office, for an institutional commission, like the works we have produced for public bodies and state corps.

In all three cases the rule learned from history holds: the foulard pleases first as an object and then as a message. If the design is beautiful and the silk is good, the recipient will wear it, and each time will carry the company that gave it. The personalisation page sets out the discreet ways in which the brand can enter the project.

Would you like to dress the staff of an event or give a commemorative edition? Contact Seterie Mosconi to design your representational foulards.

5. The foulard today: digital printing, art reproductions, new formats

The last chapter of the story is the one we are writing now. Digital printing on silk has opened possibilities for the foulard that screen printing did not allow: continuous gradients, photographs, the finest detail, limited runs without set-up costs. A company can now print a foulard with the map of its city, an archive image or an artist’s drawing, even in a few dozen pieces.

Alongside digital printing, hand printing remains the choice for art reproductions and fine editions: museums, foundations and private collections ask us for foulards that reproduce a work, and in these cases the traditional technique gives colour a depth that an expert public recognises.

Formats and materials are changing too. Square shapes are joined by rectangles and oblong forms with a more contemporary feel, and for the cold season by the silk-cashmere blend, which keeps the lustre of silk and adds warmth. For anyone wanting a responsible gift, the range of ecological fibres and fabrics offers organic silk and regenerated yarns, with the same level of finishing.

What does not change is the gesture. A foulard is folded, knotted, given, kept. From the travelling kerchief to the designer square, from the carré of the great houses to the foulard in a company’s colours, the object has held utility and beauty together. That is why, after centuries, it remains one of the most appreciated gifts a company can give.

Would you like a digitally printed foulard with a design dedicated to your company? Request a proposal from Seterie Mosconi.

6. A square of silk that goes on telling stories

The history of the foulard is the history of a simple object that has managed to change meaning in every era: protection, rank, artwork, uniform, gift. Como gave this history its technique and its hand; the fashion houses gave it their designs; companies and institutions, in the last half-century, gave it a new use.

At Seterie Mosconi we carry that story on one foulard at a time: with a design built together with the client, with silk chosen in the district, with printing and hemming done in our own workshop. The references page shows who has already entrusted the foulard with the task of representing them.

Would you like the next chapter of this story to carry your company’s name? Contact the Seterie Mosconi team and let us design your personalised silk foulard together.