---
title: "Paisley"
description: "Paisley is a teardrop motif with a curved tip, from the Persian and Indian boteh, named after the Scottish town that mass-produced paisley shawls."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/paisley
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Paisley

*Paisley is a teardrop motif with a curved tip, from the Persian and Indian boteh, named after the Scottish town that mass-produced paisley shawls.*

The paisley motif, a rounded teardrop with a bent tip, comes from the boteh of Persian and Indian design. It reached European fashion through the costly woven shawls of Kashmir in the late eighteenth century.

## Why is it named after a Scottish town?

Weavers in Paisley, near Glasgow, became leading makers of cheaper imitation Kashmir shawls in the nineteenth century, and the town’s name stuck to the motif in English.


## Sources

1. [Paisley (AAT 300261181)](http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300261181). Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus
2. [Paisley (Q937704)](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q937704). Wikidata

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/paisley